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For Immediate Release
Contact: Sabrina E. Williams, Center for Effective Government, (202) 683-4883 or [email protected].
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2015 – A just-released report by the Center for Effective Government and the Institute for Policy Studies, A Tale of Two Retirements, is the first to provide detailed statistics on the staggering gap between the retirement assets of Fortune 500 CEOs and the rest of America.
The report’s major finding: just 100 CEOs have as much in their company retirement assets as the entire retirement savings of 41 percent of American families (50 million families total). The report comes on the heels of a Social Security Administration announcement that beneficiaries will not receive a cost of living increase in 2016.
The full 30-page report and related graphics are available at: http://www.foreffectivegov.org/two-retirements
Additional key findings from A Tale of Two Retirements:
More on the top 100
Special tax-deferred compensation accounts
Government contractors
Gender and race gaps
“The CEOs’ extraordinary nest eggs are not the result of extraordinary performance,” notes Scott Klinger, director of Revenue and Spending Policies at the Center for Effective Government. “They are the result of rules intentionally tipped to reward those already on the highest rungs of the ladder.”
“The CEO-worker retirement divide has turned our country’s already extreme income divide into an even wider economic chasm,” says Sarah Anderson, Institute for Policy Studies Global Economy Project director. “And what few realize is that the trends of expanding CEO pensions and increasing worker retirement insecurity are inextricably linked.”
The percentage of private sector workers covered by a defined benefit pension, which guarantees monthly payments, has dropped from 35 percent in the early 1990s to 18 percent last year. Nearly half of all working age Americans have no access to any retirement plan at work.
The report examines various policy shifts that have favored corporate executives and identifies reforms to limit CEO retirement subsidies and ensure a dignified retirement for ordinary Americans.
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Report co-authors:
Sarah Anderson directs the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS-DC.org). She has co-authored 22 IPS annual reports on executive compensation and regularly contributes commentaries on this issue to Fortune.com, Huffington Post, CNBC.com, and other publications. Contact: [email protected], 202 787-5227.
Scott Klinger is Director of Revenue and Spending Policies at the Center for Effective Government. He crafted the first shareholder proposals on executive pay while working as a social investment portfolio manager. Scott is a CFA charterholder. Contact: [email protected]
This is Anderson and Klinger’s third joint report on executive retirement assets. Previous reports have received coverage in the Washington Post, CNN Money, Los Angeles Times, and Fortune, among other outlets.