Posting anonymously - I work for a non-public company where I qualify for a pension along with a standard 401K. As of 8 or 9 years ago, new employees no longer are in the pension plan.
When I retire in a few years, after 30 or so years of work, my pension will be around 1/3 of my working salary. Not bad. I realize there's a risk that the fund will go under so I don't plan on depending on it, but it will be a nice supplement.
From a quick google search, the plan is currently underfunded by 15%, but that number will ebb and flow with the market. Over the years, the company would talk about our "total compensation" which would include how much was contributed to the pension fund so you can think of it just as part of our salary. I've never seen the numbers, but I have heard people talk that within our company, the average retiree only collects for 5-10 years before they pass away - depressing!
When I worked at Nortel (formerly Bell Northern Research) they gave me a pension. After 5 years at that job I left and received a letter from HR to the effect: "We have cancelled your pension. You are welcome to sue us, but because the amount of your pension was small, we don't think it will be worth your while." A few years after I left, the company ran into trouble (including accounting fraud). At it's height, this was a company of over 100K employees. Once the company went into bankruptcy proceedings, it appealed to the judge to allow them to use the pension money to pay "executive retension bonuses". The idea was that since it was a sinking ship, all the executives would leave, meaning that no financial restructure would be possible. In exchange for pocketing the pension money, they agreed to stay on to the bitter end. True to their word, they did. And people who had pensions were invited to join the list of creditors (in a non-preferred position).
When I retire in a few years, after 30 or so years of work, my pension will be around 1/3 of my working salary. Not bad. I realize there's a risk that the fund will go under so I don't plan on depending on it, but it will be a nice supplement.
From a quick google search, the plan is currently underfunded by 15%, but that number will ebb and flow with the market. Over the years, the company would talk about our "total compensation" which would include how much was contributed to the pension fund so you can think of it just as part of our salary. I've never seen the numbers, but I have heard people talk that within our company, the average retiree only collects for 5-10 years before they pass away - depressing!