Multiemployer Pension Plan Crisis Explained

Here’s a good summary about the country’s crisis with multiemployer pension plans prepared by OMA Connections Partner, Calfee, as a result of the recent U.S. Congress Joint Select Committee on the Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans field hearing held recently at the Ohio Statehouse.

Calfee wrote: “The Committee held the field hearing to discuss the country’s crisis with multiemployer pension plans as it considers legislative solutions to the problem. It focused particularly on the growing number of “orphan” retirees, whose former employers are no longer contributing to their multiemployer plans, leaving fewer and fewer remaining employers holding the bag. These plans are now critically underfunded. …

“Consequently, these multiemployer pension plans’ critical status is causing nationwide concern, with Ohio employers being hit particularly hard. There are 1.3 million retirees with threatened pensions in multiemployer plans. In Ohio there are over 60,000 participants in multiemployer pension plans headed toward insolvency alone. …” 7/25/2018