Pensions in the United States: A Summary

T HERE are now 13 million persons aged 65 or over in the United States; about 4 million are working or are the wives of working men, and about 9 million are without income from current w0rk.l In 25 years, those aged 65 or over may total 20 million, and if the proportion not working remains the same, there will then be 14 million aged persons without income from work. Some retired persons depend for their support on savings or individually bought annuities, some on their relatives or on the community through old-age assistance, and some on veterans’ pensions. A growing number rely chiefly on retirement systems. This report is concerned with such systems, public and private. Retirement systems are distinguishable from other methods of income maintenance for the aged by their requirement that benefits be based on employment; only those who have been in a job covered by the plan have benefit rights. There are three major types of systems : (1) federally administered old-age and survivors insurance (OASI)-the foundation of future retirement security for most Americans; (2) private plans in industrial and nonprofit employment, which build on OASI and provide additional benefits; (3) systems, chiefly governmental, covering jobs not under OASI. The third group includes retirement plans of State and local governments, the Federal civil service, and the Armed Forces, none of which provide for integration with OASI. The railroad retirement system does, however, provide a degree of integration with OASI and perhaps should be considered a fourth class. These broad classes of retirement systems must be studied together, for