Pension plan less important than salary and flexibility at work
According to a study published by the BMO Retirement Institute a few days ago, only 9% of Canadian workers would change companies for a better pension plan.
Employer pension plans are losing their appeal is one of the trends observed in the study titled “Perfecting the workplace pension: the quest continues,” conducted by the BMO Retirement Institute. For the 1,008 Canadian employees polled, these plans are far from being a determining factor in assessing job opportunities. Only 7% thought it was the most important considering, vs. 47% who said salary and 22% who said flexible work arrangements. Along the same lines, only 9% said they would switch companies if the new employer offered a better pension or savings plan.
Multiple employers
These results can be explained by the increasing use of defined contribution pension plans vs. defined benefit plans. This change means that employees now bear a larger part of the responsibility for managing such plans than employers. The work context has also changed, in that half of Canadian workers have already had five or more employers since they started working. A defined benefit plan over time is thus no longer something employees can rely on. Employees have lost interest in them to the point that respondents were unable to specify the must-have features to be included if their employer were to offer such plans.