Coordinating the two sources of retirement income--private pensions and Social Security--tends to lower employer costs and result in private pensions that replace a larger percentage of preretirement income for higher-paid workers. (Author/SK)

Forty percent of private pension participants had plans providing benefit increases for retirees during 1978-1981. Increases were usually less than half the rise in the Consumer Price Index. (SK)

In recent years, legislative changes, new types of retirement plans, and increases in life expectancy have led to differences in retirement ages. More older adults continue to work. The traditional model of social security, savings, and employer retirement benefits is changing. (Contains 31 notes and references.) (SK)

Over three quarters of the participants in both construction and nonconstruction industries were covered by self-insured funds, although the multiemployer pension plans in the construction industry differ in almost all important respects from such plans initiated by unions in other industries. (Author)

Today, the work force is employed in different industries, retiring earlier, and living longer, factors not always considered in design of retirement benefits. Changes in pension plans need to recognize increasing job mobility, inflation over a longer retirement period, and trends in personal savings. (SK)

Of all private nonfarm workers, 65 percent were employed in 1972 in establishments offering pension plans, compared with 58 percent in 1968. (Author)

Retirement provisions may force older workers out of the labor force or restrict their employment opportunities. (Editor)