Gender Discrimination in Pension Plans Revisited: The Results of Court Ordered Implementation

The question of sex discrimination in pension plans refuses to disappear. However, the basis of the argument is changing. Originally, the debate was over whether discrimination existed, and that has now been settled in the courts. The present debate is on how to implement a nondiscriminatory plan.Two important cases have dealt with the problem of discrimination recently. In Manhart, female employees formerly contributed a larger part of their income to the retirement fund than did male employees. Now, both groups contribute the same portion, but the employer contributes a larger amount for each female employee than for each male employee earning the same wage. In Robertson, all 57,000 Indiana public school teachers, male and female, contributed the same pay percentage to the fund, but periodic retirement benefits were less for females because payouts were based on the GAM-71 Male table, offset 5 years for females. Indiana is now using a unisex table retroactive to 1972. The legal trend is unquestionably equal treatment by sex in pension plans.