< The 2014 Pension 40: The Battle Is On
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Teresa Ghilarducci
Labor Economist
New School for Social Research
PNR
“Work is not retirement.” That’s the refrain of Teresa Ghilarducci, 57, a labor economist and economic policy professor at New York’s New School for Social Research, whose approach to pension reform debunks the notion that retirees are not facing a crisis as long as they still work. “The reality is it’s just not practical to have a retirement policy based on work,” says the author of the recently published When I’m Sixty-Four: The Plot Against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them. Instead, Ghilarducci recommends a mandatory pension on top of Social Security benefits. Several states, including California, Maryland and Minnesota, have adopted her approach, and she is advocating for a similar system at the federal level. In her ideal solution every worker would be required to contribute 5 percent over and above Social Security into a private guaranteed retirement account. “The approach of encouraging people to voluntarily save more is definitely not working,” she says. The plan has received some bipartisan support. Republicans like a private sector solution, whereas Democrats favor its contribution to retirement income security. Both sides, however, also have reasons to hate the idea: Democrats don’t like private solutions, and Ghilarducci believes Republicans want older people to work longer. Still, she believes her idea has “a really good chance.”
The 2014 Pension 40
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| Bruce Rauner Illinois | John and Laura Arnold Laura and John Arnold Foundation | Randi Weingarten American Federation of Teachers | Rahm Emanuel Chicago | David Boies Boies, Schiller & Flexner |
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| Randy DeFrehn National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans | Damon Silvers AFL-CIO | Laurence Fink BlackRock | Chris Christie New Jersey | Robin Diamonte United Technologies Corp. |
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| Ted Eliopoulos California Public Employees’ Retirement System | John Kline Minnesota | J. Mark Iwry U.S. Treasury Department | Gina Raimondo Rhode Island | Phyllis Borzi U.S. Labor Department |
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| Orrin Hatch Utah | Abigail Johnson Fidelity Investments | Ted Wheeler Oregon | Caitlin Long Morgan Stanley | James Hoffa International Brotherhood of Teamsters |
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| Amy Kessler Prudential Financial | Alejandro García Padilla Puerto Rico | Christopher Klein U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Caifornia | Steven Rhodes Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan | Kevin de León California |
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| David Draine Pew Charitable Trusts | Jordan Marks National Public Pension Coalition | Sam Liccardo California | Joshua Rauh Stanford Graduate School of Business | Karen Ferguson and Karen Friedman Pension Rights Center |
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| Timothy Blake Moody’s Investors Service | Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Center for Retirement Initiatives, Georgetown University | Edward (Ted) Siedle Benchmark Financial Services | Daniel Loeb Third Point | Judy Mares Employee Benefits Security Administration, U.S. Labor Department |
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| Andrew Biggs American Enterprise Institute | Andy Stern Columbia University | Kenneth Mehlman KKR & Co. | Teresa Ghilarducci New School for Social Research | A. Melissa Moye U.S. Treasury Department |
