Employees are far less likely to also have traditional pensions. Kmart did the same in 1996. The shortcomings of retail and some service plans are intensified by those industries' lower pay. Ford doesn't match contributions by union workers - a fairly common practice among manufacturing firms. It's not solving the problem of the lower-paid workers, clearly.
Higher income is relative.
Today, company and employee contributions to retirement plans, as well as investment earnings, aren't taxed until the money is withdrawn. That exemption costs the federal government more in potential revenue than any other tax break, including the home mortgage deduction, according Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation. For years, experts have debated whether the plans disproportionately benefit the upper income. The study was based on 1990 Census data. But a study by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, a benefits consulting firm, based on 1990 income-tax data concluded that pension income is distributed much more evenly.