Pension plan participation among married couples.

Area of Science:

• Retirement planning and economic security.
• Family economics and social policy.
• Labor economics and social security.

Background:

• Previous research on pension coverage often overlooked couples as a single economic unit.
• Understanding household retirement income access requires analyzing couples collectively.
• The pension landscape experienced significant changes between 1998 and 2009.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide descriptive statistics on pension participation and types among married couples.
• To examine pension coverage from a couple's unit perspective, rather than individual marital status.
• To compare pension data from 1998 and 2009 to identify trends and changes.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the 1996/2008 Panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation.
• Incorporated Social Security administrative records for comprehensive analysis.
• Conducted a comparative analysis of pension data between 1998 and 2009.

Main Results:

• In 2009, 20% of married couples had neither spouse participating in a pension plan.
• 10% of couples had only the wife participating in a pension plan.
• 37% of couples had only the husband participating in a pension plan.

Conclusions:

• Viewing couples as a unit offers a more accurate assessment of retirement plan income access.
• Despite changes in the pension landscape, participation rates and plan types showed modest shifts.
• A significant portion of married couples lack dual pension participation, impacting household retirement security.