Labor Market, Pension Rule Structure and Retirement Benefit Promise for Long-Term

This study explores the importance of pension rule structures for understanding the effects of firm compensation practices on the stratification of the labor force. Examination of the pension rule structures of 146 firms offering 165 separate pension plans reveals that final benefit levels upon retirement are regulated by criteria relating to plan participation and the timing of retirement, which treat earnings groups differently. This study explores the link between firm characteristics and pension programs, by examining 165 firm pension plans. The rationale of this approach is twofold: first, these compensations vary considerably in their availability and regulation across firms and industrial sectors, although they have gone unexamined in the mainstream of research on labor markets. This variability may yield a better view than earnings alone of the reward structures that come to be specific to varying work contexts. Second, these compensations tend to be "deferred" returns for work not al