Retirement Incentives: The Interaction between Employer-Provided Pensions, Social Security, and Retiree Health Benefits

Proposed changes in the U.S. Social Security provisions include increasing the normal retirement age from 65 to 67 and changing from 3% to 8% the increase in benefits for each year that retirement is delayed after normal retirement. The paper considers the interaction between these changes and the provisions of employer-provided pension plans. For persons with an employer-provided defined benefit plan, the conclusion is that the Social Security changes will have little effect on labor force participation, but that changes in the firm plan - like increasing the early retirement age - would have very large effects on labor force participation.