“Young workers may want to start counting on something other than company pensions to fund their retirements. It turns out that the plans of S&P 500 companies are underfunded to the tune of $451.7 billion, a number that has grown some 27 percent in just the last year alone. Though many workers have switched to 401(k) plans over the years, pensions still have far more workers—91 million to 51 million. This year actually was supposed to be better for pensions under an accounting trick Congress approved in 2012. The move would allow corporations to use a 15-year average of bond yields, rather than the current level, to calculate their obligations.”
