Support grows for public pension for all

Whatever format a public pension-for-all takes, it's a concept that has a tailwind of public opinion behind it. In the 2015 NIRS survey, 81 percent of Americans agreed that all workers should have access to such a pension, compared to 76 percent in 2009.

The biggest disconnect, however, involves who will pay for a pension-for-all. The Illinois program is 100 percent funded by workers — not the government or employers. Taxpayers pay about one-fourth of the cost of today's pensions for public workers, but this fact is not widely known by most Americans, NIRS says. There is little momentum behind the idea of creating new taxpayer-funded pensions-for-all, although there is strong public support for not cutting Social Security benefits for current retirees.

According to NIRS, the typical working-age U.S. household near-retirement has $14,500 in retirement account assets. The guaranteed pension income this would buy at today's near-record low interest rates is — well, not even worth conducting a survey about.

What we might expect in the 2016 election are proposals and promises to give Americans more choices for increasing retirement security … but perhaps not many specifics about how to pay for it. 

It is worth noting that few Americans now take advantage of opportunities to buy immediate or deferred income annuities with their 401(k) balances, at or near retirement. But perhaps that will change, with shifting attitudes, as expressed in the NIRS survey, and with your help.