Retirement Plan Participation and Features, and the Standard of Living of Americans 55 or Older

This study completes a series using the Retirement and Pension Plan Coverage Topical Module of the 1996 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), which contains recently released data from 1998, by examining the survey's more detailed questions concerning workers' employment-based retirement plans. Specifically, it examines not only the percentage of workers who are participating in a plan but also workers' reasons for not participating in a plan when working in a job where a plan is sponsored; the features of, or decisions made, in salary reduction plans; historical participation in employment-based retirement plans; and a comparison of the standard of living of individuals age 55 or older with the standard they maintained when they were in their early fifties. As of June 1998, 64.3 percent of wage and salary workers age 16 or older worked for an employer or union that sponsored any type of retirement plan for any of its employees or members. Almost 47 percent of these wage and salary workers participated in a plan, with 43.2 percent being entitled to a benefit or eligible to receive a lump-sum distribution from a plan if their job terminated at the time of survey. Nearly 80 percent of those 55 or older reported that their standard of living is about the same or better now than when they were in their early 50s. The incidence of both pension income and health insurance from a former employer had a significant impact on the retirees' likelihood of maintaining their standard of living