Pension coverage and benefits, 1972: findings from the retirement history sutdy

This article, based on data from the Retirement History Study, examines coverage by an employee pension plan on the longest job and the extent to which covered workers received an employee pension upon retirement and the size of their benefits. It also examines the joint receipt of employee pension and OASDI benefits and the size of the combined benefits. Each of these pension variables is analyzed for differences by class of worker (private wage and salary or government), sex, and characteristics of the longest job (industry, occupation, tenure, recency of job, extent of employment, and annual earnings rate). The majority of completely retired individuals in their early to middle sixties in 1972 did not receive employee pension benefits in that year. Women employed in private industry on their longest job were the most disadvantaged in this regard. Even when they were fortunate enough to receive retirement benefits from employee pension plans, their benefits were substantially lower than those of men or of women employed in government.