Image provided by: SEIU Local 503; Salem, OR
About The Oregon state employee. (Salem, Oregon.) 1944-195? | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1945)
6 Secure Old Age BY RALPH American corporations were building social plans a generation ago. Now mil lions of workers are protected in re tirement, John L. Shields, 81, never made more than $32.50 a- week in . bis? life. He worked as a watchman in Frankfort, Ky_. When he became old he had to retire. He had a rented house for him self and his wife, a tiny savings Uc-1 count, and little more. A few years ago Johnny might have' ended up on the poor farm. Yet right now he is doing about as well as. in his palmiest days. He doesn’t work a lick. But every month he cashes checks totaling $130, or almost precisely what- he once drew in salary. Thè answer? Johnny has a generous pension from his old employers— Schenley Distillers: The ghost of a needy old age I has been laid for 2,000,000 A m e r i c a n workers by the greatest corporate pen sion rush in history, Before the war only about 1000 corporations had pen sion plans. Now 6000 such plans have been filed for Treasury approval, with more snowing down on Treasury desks every day. Private industry may ulti-, mately pay aged workers a billion dol lars each year. Moreover, these annual payments are guaranteed, either by in surance company funds or irrevocable trusts. JLabor, once opposed to pensions as a scheme to hold down wages, now generally approves corporate programs to supplement Social Security benefit^ The average Government payment to bid couples ranges between $50 ' and -$ 60 a month— admittedly inadequate to provide more than bedrock essentials. Additional contributions by employers spell the difference between com fort and misery. Such enlightened social thinking has; WALLACE already drawn "fefriployer and employe more closely together. I made a survey of more than 100 representative Ameri can corporations which have established pension plans. Company after company reported increased production and bet ter worker morale. More than 80 com panies reported lower labor turnover. One executive told me his labor tu rn over had been only half as; much I as anticipated, simply because workers knew they would be taken.xare of in old age if they stuck with their jobs. Almost equally significant, the land slide of new pension plans has helped stimulate an impressive boom in com pany-sponsored life and h'ealth insur ance programs— the other two key stones pf workers’ social security. Group health and accident plans now' protect about 7,000,000 workers; 15,000,000 are covered by group life. In these pro grams the company bears a’ third or more of" the costs. "The worker I makes American busi ness click,” Langbourne Williams, presi dent of Freeport Sulphur, told me. "W hy shouldn’t he have business-spon sored safeguards fo r his lffe, his health, and his financial security in old age?” One of the most liberal pension plans was established several years ago by Shell Employes after 20 years’ service receive as a pension 40 percent of their last five years’ average pay. This means a $3000-a-year worker can retire at $ 1200, a' year. Employees do hot contribute a cent to this program. Even more impressive, Shell has , a ’'Provident Fund”— a voluntary, plan by which up to ten percent of an em ploye’s salary can be deducted a n d saved until he quits or retires, w ith the , company matching the worker's con tribution dollar for dollar. Just before (Continued on page 24)
