Retirement Security

Retirement security is becoming a goal beyond reach for America's working families. Fewer workers now are covered by pension plans and fewer plans that employers provide offer guaranteed, lifelong benefits. Companies have been treating bankruptcy as a business strategy to eliminate pensions, and even healthy companies are reneging on commitments to help provide their employees with a secure retirement. The Bush administration and its congressional and corporate allies continue attempts to privatize Social Security, the bedrock of retirement security for working families.

The AFL-CIO advocates a plan for ensuring retirement security based on these principles:

• Retirement security should be based on mutual responsibility, with financing and risk allocated equitably among government, employers and workers;
• Every full-career worker should have the opportunity to retire at 65 with at least 70 percent of his or her pre-retirement income;
• Retirement benefits should be portable;
• Defined-contribution plans should be structured to serve the interest of workers, not those of their employers or Wall Street;
• Retirement plan participants should be represented in the governance of their plans;
• As the foundation of America's retirement security, Social Security must be strengthened, not damaged by privatization schemes.

Where do the presidential candidates stand on retirement security?