Private Job Displacement Insurance in the United States, 1954-1979 : Expansion and Innovation

Formal severance plans became common among office workers in the early years of the Great Depression, but then grew little over the next two decades, despite major changes in labor relations law, the regularity of employment, and the industrial disruptions of a world war. That stability ended abruptly in the mid-1950s. Data drawn from an extensive series of surveys conducted by the National Industrial Conference Board reveal that coverage of both office and factory workers increased sharply between 1954 and 1979 in medium and large companies - 63 percent among office workers and 150 percent among hourly workers. The expansion was concentrated in the first 15 years of this period. Strong labor union interest in earnings security may partly explain the general phenomenon - tabulations of contract provisions in major collective bargaining agreements indicate an abrupt increase in severance coverage in the mid- to late-1950s, although one collective bargaining innovation, supplemental unemployment benefits (SUB), was not adopted in the broader workplace