LegiStorm

Summary:

Multiemployer defined benefit (DB) pension plans are pensions sponsored by more than one employer and maintained as part of a collective bargaining agreement. With DB pensions, participants receive a monthly benefit in retirement that is based on a formula. With multiemployer DB pensions, the formula typically multiplies a dollar amount by the number of years of service the employee has worked for employers that participate in the DB plan. Some DB pension plans have sufficient resources from which to pay their promised benefits. But, as a result of a variety of factors—such as changes in the unionized workforce and the 2007 to 2009 recession—many multiemployer DB plans are likely to become insolvent over the next 20 years and run out of funds from which to pay benefits owed to participants. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is a U.S. government agency that insures the benefits of participants in private-sector DB pension plans. Although PBGC is projected to have sufficient resources to provide financial assistance through 2025 to smaller multiemployer DB plans, the projected insolvency of large multiemployer DB pension plans would likely result in a substantial strain on PBGC’s multiemployer insurance program. In a report released in June 2017, PBGC indicated that the multiemployer insurance program is highly likely to become insolvent by 2025. In the absence of increased financial resources for PBGC, participants in insolvent multiemployer DB pension plans would likely see sharp reductions in their pension benefits. This report’s data are from the public use file of the Form 5500 annual disclosure for the 2015 plan year (the most recent year for which complete information is available). Nearly all privatesector pension plans (including multiemployer DB plans) are required to file Form 5500 with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Department of Labor (DOL), and PBGC. The Form 5500 information includes breakdowns on the number of plan participants, financial information about the plan, and details of companies providing services to the plan. Multiemployer DB plans specifically are required to report their financial condition as being in one of several categories (referred to as the plan’s “zone status”). The insolvencies of these plans could affect the employers that contribute to multiemployer plans. For example, an employer in a plan that becomes insolvent might have to recognize the total amount of its future obligations to the plan, which could affect the employer’s access to credit and, potentially, its participation in other multiemployer plans. This report provides data on multiemployer DB plans categorized in several ways. First, the report categorizes the data based on plans’ zone status in 2015. Next, it provides a year-by-year breakdown of the number of plans that are expected to become insolvent and the number of participants in those plans. It then provides information on the 25 largest multiemployer DB plans in 2015 (each plan has at least 75,000 participants). Finally, the report provides data on those employers whose plans indicate they contributed more than 5% of the plans’ total contributions (referred to in this report as “5% contributors”) in the 2015 plan year. It lists (1) the 5% contributors whose total contributions to multiemployer plans were at least $25 million and (2) the 5% contributors in the 12 largest multiemployer plans (as ranked by total contributions to the plan) that are in critical and declining status.