Equal Pension treatment for all employees

In bygone times the majority of the larger companies in the UK offered their employees participation in a defined-benefit (DB) pension scheme. While these schemes produced their share of iniquities (treating early leavers poorly) they offered stability to the workforce and appeared to represent a fair deal for employer and employee alike. A variety of factors which we will not discuss here contributed to the decline in DB schemes during the past 15-10 years. This is contrary to efforts in many other countries to introduce a 'second leg' for retirement provision (in addition to the state pension and private savings which are the third leg). The result is that the majority of employees - and certainly those on middle and low incomes - face a period of penury in their old age. What makes the decline in DB schemes particularly galling to those employees is the fact that the managerial class - and in particular the top executives - escape from this dilemma. Not only are they compensated particularly well during their working life, in addition they also arrange to pay themselves pension contributions that are way above what they are willing to pay for the general workforce. In the interest of good corporate governance it is essential that all pension payments are made on a strictly pro-rata basis based on base salary with no distinction between different types of employee.