Tag: COLA
The perception is that public employees have much greater protections with respect to their defined benefit plans than their private sector counterparts. While the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974 – the governing law in the private sector – protects benefits earned to date, state laws or constitutions prevent public plan sponsors from…
A recent press story highlighted proposed pension cuts in San Diego and San Jose, California as pioneering efforts to rein in pension costs (New York Times 6-6-12). These cuts were deemed newsworthy because they reduced future benefits for current participants, an action which at the beginning of the financial crisis was thought to have been…
