US Department of Labor reports distressed pension assistance program has protected benefits for more than 1.2M workers, retirees, families

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced that its Employee Benefits Security Administration has issued a report illustrating how the American Rescue Plan has protected the financially distressed pension plans of more than 1.2 million U.S. workers, retirees and their families, ensuring they receive the retirement benefits they earned. 

The department’s report on the impact of the Butch Lewis Emergency Pension Relief Act finds that, as of October 2024, more than $69 billion in Special Financial Assistance has been approved for 98 multiemployer pension plans whose participants faced reductions in retirement benefits averaging 41 percent. The report also shows the American Rescue Plan already has provided more than $1.6 billion in restorative payments and ongoing benefit payments to more than 121,000 retirees, an average of about $13,600 per retiree. Almost half of the $1.6 billion reversed retirees’ previous benefit reductions.

“A pension is more than a number on a sheet of paper; it’s the ability to stop working after years of making a good, honest living, to rest your aching knees and aching backs, and to go to bed without setting an alarm clock. A pension isn’t given. It’s earned,” said Acting Secretary Julie Su. “The Biden-Harris administration’s American Rescue Plan has already delivered on the promise of ensuring a secure and dignified retirement for more than 1.2 million workers and retirees, and there’s still more to come. We ultimately expect pension plans covering more than two million workers and retirees to remain solvent and able to pay out full benefits for the next several decades.”

Special Financial Assistance has safeguarded plan benefits for union workers and retirees in many industries, including nearly 620,000 Teamsters, more than 152,000 in the United Food and Commercial Workers International, over 103,000 Bakery and Confectionery workers, more than 89,000 United Steelworkers, over 50,000 Communications Workers of America, as well as 49,000 union musicians and 29,000 carpenters.

The pension protection legislation in the American Rescue Plan was named for the late Butch Lewis, a former Teamster who fought to protect union retirees’ pensions from harsh benefit cuts through no fault of their own. Ultimately, the act is expected to ensure roughly two million workers’ and retirees’ pension plans remain solvent and able to pay full benefits workers earn through at least 2051.

Read the EBSA report on Special Financial Assistance. 

Read a White House fact sheet on the impact of the Butch Lewis Act.