Boeing has proposed closing its defined benefit pension plan to Puget Sound-based new hires beginning Jan. 1, 2013, much to the chagrin of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), the union that represents engineers at the plane manufacturer's facilities across the country. Instead, it proposes offering an enhanced Voluntary Investment Plan, which would include a new automatic company contribution and a company match on employee contributions, according to the Boeing website.

Even though the company's DB plan is 100 percent funded, according to the site, moving new employees to a defined contribution model would save the company a lot of money in the long run.

In its proposal to SPEEA, it showed that people under age 40 would receive an automatic company contribution of 3 percent, a 6 percent company match on 8 percent employee contribution of pay for a total company contribution of 9 percent.