Just the Facts... The Multiemployer Pension System Needs a Fix

Several recent reports on the multiemployer pension system have underscored the depth of the financial crisis facing these plans.

Milliman’s Spring 2018 Multiemployer Pension Funding Studyfound that the aggregate funded percentage of all multiemployer plans improved from 81% to 83% over the last six months. This is a definite improvement even though still lower than the aggregate funded percent of 85% a decade ago. This figure is bolstered by an improvement in the finances of plans not in critical status, which had a funding percentage of 93% currently, compared with 90% a decade ago. For critical plans, however, the situation is getting drastically worse. Indeed, the aggregate funded percentage of these plans was just 60% as of December 31, 2017, a steep drop from the 76% funded status they achieved a decade ago. The report notes that the healthier plans benefit from a lower active employee to retiree ratio and lower negative cash flow, which allows for more contributions to be allocated to unfunded liabilities. Critical plans that lack these characteristics are unlikely to improve their funded status.

At the end of May, the PBGC issued itsFY 2017 Projection Reportestimating that the multiemployer program hasa very high likelihood of insolvency during FY 2025 and near certainty of insolvency by the end of FY 2026. The increased risk of insolvency is due primarily to the changes in the largest troubled plan (the Central States Pension Fund), which “eliminates most of the uncertainty about when the plan will require PBGC financial assistance.” Therefore, the impending insolvency of the largest plan will lead to the insolvency of the PBGC.

These reports do not include recommendations or advocate specific policy prescriptions. Instead, they present only the facts. These facts are that: (1) Central States, the largest multiemployer pension plan, has a demographic issue which will only get worse, causing further underfunding and most likely eventually insolvency; (2) the funded status of the most dire plans—those in critical status—is getting worse; and (3) the PBGC, which is a federal backstop for these plans, is predicted to become insolvent in less than 10 years. The facts are clear, and Congress must provide a comprehensive solution to avoid a deepening crisis in the multiemployer pension plan system. Without such a comprehensive solution, the insolvency of certain multiemployer plans and the PBGC will have a devastating impact on ‎employers, retirees, and workers in these plans.