By the same token, companies had less incentive to offer pensions.

In the old days, the phone company offered lifelong jobs and generous pensions.

Houston, like many cities, he said, offered big pensions to make up for paying its workers less than they could earn in the private sector.

A delay could be painful to many of the companies that offer pensions to their workers.

This type of plan allows small businesses to offer pensions that they might not be able to afford on their own.

Stocks are favored on the theory that they will produce higher returns over time, allowing companies to offer pensions at lower cost.

They say it would be difficult to offer pensions at all without the flexibility now built into the pension law.

The agency finances its operations by charging premiums to the companies that offer pensions.

Alexander says the number of people being offered pensions like this in the private sector is "very small".

The pension agency finances its insurance program by charging premiums to all companies that offer pensions.