Teachers, higher education administrators and financial planners are well acquainted with the work of TIAA-CREF. The insurance and investment company has been a central player in teacher retirement and financial planning for nearly a century. Twelve years ago, the organization spawned the TIAA-CREF Institute, a research-focused arm that brings…

Over the past few years, as cash-strapped states and school districts have faced tough budget decisions, spending on teacher compensation has come under the microscope. The underlying question is whether, when you take everything into account, today's teachers are fairly paid, underpaid, or overpaid. In this forum, two pairs of respected…

Since 1935, Social Security has provided a vital safety net for millions of Americans who cannot work because of age or disability. This safety net has been especially critical for Americans of Latino decent, who number more than 50 million or nearly one out of every six Americans. Social Security is critical to Latinos because it is much more…

Teacher benefits, once a sleepy question primarily of interest to actuaries, have become a flash point in the education debate. With individual states on the hook for tens or hundreds of millions in unfunded pension and health insurance obligations, state leaders are trying to determine the severity of the situation and the appropriate response.…

When he was still President Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, now mayor-elect of Chicago, famously quipped: "Never allow a crisis to go to waste." Republican governors in Wisconsin, New Jersey, Ohio, and other states have certainly taken that advice to heart. By emphasizing, and in some cases manipulating, the red ink flowing through…

In 2002, during yet another budget crisis produced in large measure by the state's tax-cutting mania, Massachusetts proposed a massive cut in the university's budget. Through an early retirement incentive, the state wanted to reduce the faculty by 10 percent. No one was prepared to fight back. Despite UMass Amherst's long history of activism, and…

The vast majority of public employees--including teachers--are enrolled in defined-benefit pension plans. These plans are usually the product of state legislation that determines eligibility, benefit formulas, employer and employee contributions, and how payments will be calculated when an employee retires or leaves the system. Once an employee…

This article is a revised and abbreviated version of a session that the authors presented at the 25th annual Lilly Conference on College Teaching, November 19, 2005, in Oxford, Ohio. It arose from their joint conviction that while teaching is the greatest job in the world, teachers do not need to stay in it until death do them part. Beidler and…

The tension at the heart of pension politics is the incentive to satisfy today's claimants in the here-and-now at the expense of long-term concerns. Rules and auditing standards are intended to tame this kind of short-sighted behavior in the private sector. In the public sector, the primary safeguard is the hope that public officials will not be…

No one generation should get a better "net deal" out of the retirement system than another. Various social security reforms are analyzed. (RM)

After examining the "Manhart" and "Gilbert" cases, argues that unisex mortality tables delineated by job classification will be more accurate and place less of an unequal burden on either sex than tables not linked to such classifications. (IRT)

Discusses the need for retirement planning and offers suggestions for building a nest egg. Suggests that pensions are not sufficient and that other investments are crucial to ensure a comfortable retirement. Includes resources and a plan for saving. (JOW)

Current policies concerning income in old age are framed in terms of important Social Security and private pension developments. Criticisms of the "new Social Security" are viewed in the context of major problems associated with the options, especially private pensions. (Author)

In this paper the authors examine how the structures of earnings, Social Security, and pension benefits affect retirement behavior. They use an intertemporal model of labor supply, paying special attention to the institutional features of private pensions and Social Security benefits. (Author/SSH)

The history of the Social Security system is presented and its economic health is examined in three time frames. The Administration's actions toward the system are detailed along with the American labor movement's actions in this area. (Availability: AFL-CIO, 815 16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006). (CT)