Shifting Options for Chemical Engineers' Retirement Plans

The 2017 AIChE Salary Survey uncovered a variety of changes to retirement plans. This year, many expressed that there were changes in their retirement options, ranging from small to quite significant. While some only reported changes of funds available to them in a 401(k) program, for example, others reported major changes, such as a discontinued pension plan or changes regarding who is eligible for pension benefits.

The question we asked all respondents was: "You indicated your employer made changes to the retirement plans / you are offered. Please describe..."

One clear trend was the introduction of the 401(k) Roth, as seen here in one respondent's reply:

My company went with a new 401K service provider and made Roth 401K available for first time in 2017

And when it came to employer matching on these plans, results were mixed, with some seeing some increases in company matches, while others saw a decrease. A continuing trend: we again saw freezes to pension plans and a move to deny pension benefits to new hires:

The pension has been updated for new personnel. In other words the pension has been downgraded.

Below is a word cloud that shows the most frequent words mentioned in the responses on retirement benefits. The larger the word, the more frequently it was mentioned.

To see more results about benefits and more, see the full article in CEP

Join the discussion on Engage:

Did you see positive changes in benefits over the past year, or disappointing changes? 

At your company, are benefits an incentive to stay or a reason to leave?