Employee Benefit Research Institute

Last updated
Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI)
Founded1978
TypeIndependent research institute
Location
  • 901 D St. SW, Suite 802
    Washington, D.C. 20024
Key people
Barb Marder (President & CEO)
Budget
Revenue: $3,865,277
Expenses: $4,217,486
(FYE December 2020) [1]
Website ebri.org

Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C., that produces original research about health, savings, retirement, personal finance and economic security issues, including 401(k) and retirement plan coverage data, [2] post-retirement income adequacy, [3] health coverage and the uninsured, [4] and economic security of the elderly. [5] [6]

Contents

The EBRI is an independent institute, representing no particular special interest or ideological perspective. [7] Its membership includes a broad range of benefit-related organizations that often have differing policy goals.

As well, the EBRI maintains the largest 401(k) microdatabase in the nation that tracks individual 401(k) participant investment activity. [8] EBRI researchers have been frequently asked to testify about their research before Congress on a variety of retirement, health, savings, and economic security issues. [9]

History

The EBRI was founded in 1978 by a group of benefits-related companies following enactment of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), the major federal law governing private-sector benefits. It is based on three principles: That employee benefit plans serve an essential function in the United States economy by providing citizens with opportunities to achieve financial security; an ongoing need exists for objective, unbiased information regarding the employee benefits system; and that its members’ common business interests will be furthered by having the Institute develop and disseminate such information. [10]

Publications

The EBRI’s research periodicals include EBRI Issue Briefs, Fast Facts, Infographics and EBRInteractives. In addition to its website, it publishes a variety of electronic products, such as a blog, [11] Twitter site and a LinkedIn site.

Policy stance

The Employee Benefit Research Institute does not take policy positions and does not lobby.

Policy research

The EBRI has tracked the decline of traditional "defined benefit” pensions and the growth of defined contribution (401(k)-type) retirement plans, [12] [13] trends in retirement, [14] [15] trends in employment-base health benefits, [16] and conducted public opinion surveys related to retirement and health benefits.

The EBRI publishes data on trends and characteristics of health insurance coverage and the uninsured, [17] and how the type of health plans offered to workers have been changing in the private sector. [18] It has also quantified the amount of money that single men, single women, and married couples will need to save to pay for out-of-pocket health care in retirement. [19]

In conjunction with the Investment Company Institute (ICI), [20] EBRI created and operates the EBRI/ICI 401(k) database, [21] the largest microdatabase of its kind in the nation tracking individual 401(k) participants. [22] EBRI also tracks the growing importance of individual-account retirement plans such as 401(k)s and individual retirement accounts (IRAs). [23]

Using its Retirement Security Projection Model, EBRI has published detailed analysis showing likely retirement income adequacy levels for Americans by age and income. [24] It has also reported likely results if deficit reduction efforts in Congress reduce or eliminate existing tax preferences for 401(k)s. [25]

The EBRI’s Social Security modeling allows it to quantify the impact of various reform proposals. Its 1998 analysis was the first in-depth look at the many administrative issues involved with adding private accounts to Social Security, [26] at the time a major policy proposal.

Surveys

The Employee Benefit Research Institute’s annual Retirement Confidence Survey, [27] which began in 1990, is the longest-running annual retirement survey of its kind in the nation. Its annual Workplace Wellness Survey asks questions to employees about workplace-based benefits. [28] The EBRI Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey provides national data on the growth of consumer-driven health plans and high-deductible health plans. [18] [29] [30]

Programs

Previously, through its Education and Research Fund (ERF), EBRI operated the Choose to Save national public education and outreach campaign, [31] and the American Savings Education Council, [32] a national coalition of public- and private-sector organizations that promote saving.

As part of its Choose to Save initiative, EBRI developed the Ballpark Estimate for ASEC, [33] a two-page worksheet that identifies a person’s general savings target for a comfortable retirement. It is used as the retirement calculator for federal employees on the Office of Personnel Management’s Federal Ballpark E$timate website [34] and also by the U.S. Thrift Savings Plan on its website. [35] In 2023, the Employee Benefit Research Institute relaunched a new version of its Ballpark E$timate online retirement planning tool.

Related Research Articles

In the United States, a 401(k) plan is an employer-sponsored, defined-contribution, personal pension (savings) account, as defined in subsection 401(k) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Periodic employee contributions come directly out of their paychecks, and may be matched by the employer. This legal option is what makes 401(k) plans attractive to employees, and many employers offer this option to their (full-time) workers. 401(k) payable is a general ledger account that contains the amount of 401(k) plan pension payments that an employer has an obligation to remit to a pension plan administrator. This account is classified as a payroll liability, since the amount owed should be paid within one year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pension</span> Retirement fund

A pension is a fund into which amounts are paid regularly during the individual's working career, and from which periodic payments are made to support the person's retirement from work. A pension may be:

An individual retirement account (IRA) in the United States is a form of pension provided by many financial institutions that provides tax advantages for retirement savings. It is a trust that holds investment assets purchased with a taxpayer's earned income for the taxpayer's eventual benefit in old age. An individual retirement account is a type of individual retirement arrangement as described in IRS Publication 590, Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs). Other arrangements include employer-established benefit trusts and individual retirement annuities, by which a taxpayer purchases an annuity contract or an endowment contract from a life insurance company.

A health savings account (HSA) is a tax-advantaged medical savings account available to taxpayers in the United States who are enrolled in a high-deductible health plan (HDHP). The funds contributed to an account are not subject to federal income tax at the time of deposit. Unlike a flexible spending account (FSA), HSA funds roll over and accumulate year to year if they are not spent. HSAs are owned by the individual, which differentiates them from company-owned Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRA) that are an alternate tax-deductible source of funds paired with either high-deductible health plans or standard health plans.

The term job lock is used to describe the inability of an employee to freely leave a job because doing so will result in the loss of employee benefits. In a broader sense, job lock may describe the situation where an employee is being paid higher than scale or has accumulated significant benefits, so that changing jobs is not a realistic option as it would result in significantly lower pay, less vacation time, etc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Employee benefits</span> Non-wage compensation provided to employees in addition to normal wages or salaries

Employee benefits and benefits in kind include various types of non-wage compensation provided to employees in addition to their normal wages or salaries. Instances where an employee exchanges (cash) wages for some other form of benefit is generally referred to as a "salary packaging" or "salary exchange" arrangement. In most countries, most kinds of employee benefits are taxable to at least some degree. Examples of these benefits include: housing furnished or not, with or without free utilities; group insurance ; disability income protection; retirement benefits; daycare; tuition reimbursement; sick leave; vacation ; social security; profit sharing; employer student loan contributions; conveyancing; long service leave; domestic help (servants); and other specialized benefits.

The Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) is a public pension fund organized in 1920 that has provided retirement, disability, and survivor benefits for most civilian employees in the United States federal government. Upon the creation of a new Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) in 1987, those newly hired after that date cannot participate in CSRS. CSRS continues to provide retirement benefits to those eligible to receive them.

The pensions crisis or pensions timebomb is the predicted difficulty in paying for corporate or government employment retirement pensions in various countries, due to a difference between pension obligations and the resources set aside to fund them. The basic difficulty of the pension problem is that institutions must be sustained over far longer than the political planning horizon. Shifting demographics are causing a lower ratio of workers per retiree; contributing factors include retirees living longer, and lower birth rates. An international comparison of pension institution by countries is important to solve the pension crisis problem. There is significant debate regarding the magnitude and importance of the problem, as well as the solutions. One aspect and challenge of the "Pension timebomb" is that several countries' governments have a constitutional obligation to provide public services to its citizens, but the funding of these programs, such as healthcare are at a lack of funding, especially after the 2008 recession and the strain caused on the dependency ratio by an ageing population and a shrinking workforce, which increases costs of elderly care.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Defined contribution plan</span> Type of retirement plan

A defined contribution (DC) plan is a type of retirement plan in which the employer, employee or both make contributions on a regular basis. Individual accounts are set up for participants and benefits are based on the amounts credited to these accounts plus any investment earnings on the money in the account. In defined contribution plans, future benefits fluctuate on the basis of investment earnings. The most common type of defined contribution plan is a savings and thrift plan. Under this type of plan, the employee contributes a predetermined portion of his or her earnings to an individual account, all or part of which is matched by the employer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pensions in the United States</span> Overview of pensions in the United States of America

Pensions in the United States consist of the Social Security system, public employees retirement systems, as well as various private pension plans offered by employers, insurance companies, and unions.

A private pension is a plan into which individuals contribute from their earnings, which then will pay them a private pension after retirement. It is an alternative to the state pension. Usually, individuals invest funds into saving schemes or mutual funds, run by insurance companies. Often private pensions are also run by the employer and are called occupational pensions. The contributions into private pension schemes are usually tax-deductible. This is similar to the regular pension.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oregon Public Employees Retirement System</span> U.S. public employee retirement and disability fund

The Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) is the retirement and disability fund for public employees in the U.S. state of Oregon established in 1946. Employees of the state, school districts, and local governments are eligible for coverage. A health insurance plan for covered retirees was added to the program in 1987. The program is administered by a twelve-member board of trustees, appointed to three-year terms by the Governor subject to confirmation by the Senate, which also administers the Oregon Savings Growth Plan, a voluntary deferred compensation plan established in 1991.

In the United States, health insurance helps pay for medical expenses through privately purchased insurance, social insurance, or a social welfare program funded by the government. Synonyms for this usage include "health coverage", "health care coverage", and "health benefits". In a more technical sense, the term "health insurance" is used to describe any form of insurance providing protection against the costs of medical services. This usage includes both private insurance programs and social insurance programs such as Medicare, which pools resources and spreads the financial risk associated with major medical expenses across the entire population to protect everyone, as well as social welfare programs like Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, which both provide assistance to people who cannot afford health coverage.

Teresa Ghilarducci is an American scholar on labor and retirement issues. She has advocated for government to extend occupational retirement plan coverage to all workers. She published Rescuing Retirement in 2018; the book makes the case for a Guaranteed Retirement Account that would supplement Social Security. In 2016 she wrote a popular book, How to Retire with Enough Money: And How to Know What Enough Is. One of her most recent books, When I’m Sixty Four: The Plot Against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them, investigates the loss of pensions on older Americans and proposes a comprehensive system of reform. Her previous books include Labor's Capital: The Economics and Politics of Employer Pensions, winner of an Association of American Publishers award in 1992, and Portable Pension Plans for Casual Labor Markets, published in 1995. Ghilarducci is an executive board member of the Economic Policy Institute, a member of the Retirement Security Advisory Board for the Government Accountability Office, court appointed trustees for the retiree health care trusts for UAW retirees of GM, Ford, and Chrysler and the USW retirees of Goodyear Tire. Ghilarducci won an Association of American Publishers award for her book Labor's Capital: The Economics and Politics of Employer Pensions in 1992. She previously taught economics for 25 years at the University of Notre Dame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Defined benefit pension plan</span> Type of pension plan

Defined benefit (DB) pension plan is a type of pension plan in which an employer/sponsor promises a specified pension payment, lump-sum, or combination thereof on retirement that depends on an employee's earnings history, tenure of service and age, rather than depending directly on individual investment returns. Traditionally, many governmental and public entities, as well as a large number of corporations, provide defined benefit plans, sometimes as a means of compensating workers in lieu of increased pay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Retirement spend-down</span>

At retirement, individuals stop working and no longer get employment earnings, and enter a phase of their lives, where they rely on the assets they have accumulated, to supply money for their spending needs for the rest of their lives. Retirement spend-down, or withdrawal rate, is the strategy a retiree follows to spend, decumulate or withdraw assets during retirement.

An Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) in the United States is a defined contribution plan, a form of retirement plan as defined by 4975(e)(7)of IRS codes, which became a qualified retirement plan in 1974. It is one of the methods of employee participation in corporate ownership.

Utah Retirement Systems administers pension plans and retirement savings plans for public employees in the U.S. state of Utah. There are eight separate defined-benefit pension plans administered by URS, as well as various retirement savings plans. As of December 31, 2014, the URS was managing over $31 billion in its pension trust funds, for nearly 200,000 members. Besides the pension trust funds, the URS manages a 401(k), 457(b), a traditional IRA and Roth IRA with around $4.5 billion in assets combined at the end of 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yung-Ping Chen</span> American economist and gerontologist (1930–2022)

Yung-Ping Chen was an American economist and gerontologist of Chinese origin. He pioneered the concept of home equity conversion in the United States and developed innovative approaches to the funding of Social Security benefits and long-term care. His scholarship contributed to a better understanding of the economic, political, and social implications and challenges created by the "mass aging" phenomenon—the ongoing and unprecedented shift to an increasingly elder-populated society.

The American Benefits Council (the Council) is a national trade association based in Washington, D.C. that advocates for employer-sponsored benefit plans. The Council's members represent the private employee benefits community and either sponsor directly or provide services to retirement and health benefit plans both nationally and internationally.

References

  1. ↑ "Employee Benefit Research Institute" (PDF). Foundation Center. 29 April 2020. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  2. ↑ “Lessons From the Private Sector–Room for Debate,” New York Times, Feb 28, 2011. Retrieved October 31, 2012.
  3. ↑ “70 is not the new 65,” Chicago Tribune, Sep 28, 2012. Retrieved Oct 31, 2012.
  4. ↑ “Employment-Based Health Coverage Is Waning,” Wall Street Journal, May 23, 2012. Retrieved Oct 31, 2012
  5. ↑ “Poor Old Americans,” Wall Street Journal, May 22, 2012. Retrieved Oct 31, 2012.
  6. ↑ “How Nursing Home Stays Ravage Finances,” U.S. News & World Report, June 16, 2012. Retrieved Oct 31, 2012.
  7. ↑ “EBRI turning 25,” Pensions&Investments, Aug 13, 2003. Retrieved Oct 31, 2012.
  8. ↑ "Younger Investors Aren’t Shy About Putting Stocks Into 401(k)s". Bloomberg News. Dec 21, 2011. Retrieved Nov 2, 2012.
  9. ↑ EBRI testimony – EBRI website. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  10. ↑ About EBRI – EBRI Website. Retrieved July 16,2021.
  11. ↑ EBRI blog. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  12. ↑ “Company Pensions Are as Passé as Gold Watches,” Archived 2013-10-23 at the Wayback Machine U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved Nov 3, 2012.
  13. ↑ “ERISA at 30: The decline of Private-Sector Defined Benefit Promises and Annuity Payments? What Will It Mean?” EBRI Issue Brief, May 2004.
  14. ↑ "Retirement is making people more miserable than ever before". www.msn.com. Retrieved 2016-07-07.
  15. ↑ "Will Working Longer Rescue Your Retirement?" . Retrieved 2016-07-07.
  16. ↑ “Fewer Employers Offering Health Benefits, Study Says,” The Hill, April 24, 2012. Retrieved Nov 3, 2012.
  17. ↑ “Employment-Based Health Coverage Continues Decline; Uninsured Rate Shrinks as Public Coverage Grows,” InsuranceNews.net, Sep 20, 2012. Retrieved Nov 3, 2012.
  18. 1 2 “Satisfaction Levels Rising for CDHPs, Slipping for Traditional Plans,” Archived 2012-09-23 at the Wayback Machine WorldatWork Newsline, Aug 31, 2012. Retrieved Nov 3, 2012.
  19. ↑ “Start Saving Now: Retiree Health Care Costs Heading Higher,” CBS News MoneyWatch, Dec 1, 2010. Retrieved Nov 3, 2012.
  20. ↑ ICI website. Retrieved Nov 3, 2012.
  21. ↑ “Investor's Business Daily, Dec 20, 2014. Retrieved Dec 20, 2014.
  22. ↑ "Target Date Fund Use in 401(k) Plans Increasing". Financial Advisor. Dec 23, 2013. Retrieved 2013-12-31.
  23. ↑ “EBRI: DC Balances Account for More Financial Assets Despite Their Declines,” Pensions&Investments, Sep 26, 2012. Retrieved Nov 3, 2012.
  24. ↑ “Making Your Retirement Assets Last,” Wall Street Journal, Sep 5, 2012. Retrieved Nov 3, 2012.
  25. ↑ “Tax Reform Implications for Retirement Savings: Don’t Mess With My 401(k)!” Wall Street Journal, Nov 15, 2011. Retrieved Nov 3, 2012.
  26. ↑ “Individual Social Security Accounts: Issues in Assessing Administrative Feasibility and Costs,” EBRI Issue Brief, November 1998. Retrieved Nov 3, 2012.
  27. ↑ “One-third have almost no retirement savings,” USAToday, April 21, 2015.
  28. ↑ BenefitsPro, Feb 22, 2021. Retrieved July 16,2021.
  29. ↑ "MarksJarvis: Would you pick health benefits over a pay raise?" . Retrieved 2016-07-07.
  30. ↑ “More Insured, Fewer Via Private Healthcare,” UPI, Oct 2, 2012. Retrieved Nov 3, 2012.
  31. ↑ Choose to Save website. Retrieved Nov 3, 2012.
  32. ↑ American Savings Education Council – Choose to Save website. Retrieved Nov 3, 2012.
  33. ↑ “The Best In…Financing Your Future,” Wall Street Journal, May 23, 2012. Retrieved Nov 3, 2012.
  34. ↑ “Federal Ballpark E$timate,” - U.S. OPM, Retirement Information and Services. Retrieved Nov 3, 2012.
  35. ↑ “How Much Should I Save (Ballpark Estimate)?” Archived 2012-10-16 at the Wayback Machine - Thrift Savings Plan website. Retrieved Nov 3, 2012.
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