Brief Pension Plan Discrimination Against the Short-Lived
Subtitle
The Government We Deserve
C. Eugene Steuerle
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Many pension plans pay out benefits over a worker's remaining life. Perhaps inadvertently, they then discriminate against groups with shorter life expectancies. Losers include those with poorer health, less education, and more physically demanding jobs. Racial groups with higher mortality rates, like blacks, also lose. This discrimination, however, can largely be overcome with compensating mechanisms.