Defined benefit pension funds in the United States experienced material declines in funded ratios in the past decade. The events of 2008 coincided with the implementation of a new federal pension funding regime, the Pension Protection Act of 2006. This case study describes a unique pension...

Labor unions played an historic role creating the occupational pension system in the private and public sectors in the post-World War II era. That system, which was dominated by defined benefit pension plans, is in decline. The transition to a new system is economically and socially painful, and...