man on rocky shore in storm with umbrella Under current law, PBGC backs a modest portion of multiemployer plan benefits. For instance, a union employee in the Central States Plan with 20 years of service is only guaranteed $8,580 from the PBGC. (Photo: Shutterstock)

The massive deficit in the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.'s multiemployer insurance program exploded by $11.3 billion in fiscal year 2019, reaching a record deficit of $65.2 billion.

The moribund program that insures the pensions of 1,400 collectively bargained defined benefit pensions plans covering 10.8 million workers and retirees is projected to be insolvent by 2025.

Recommended For You

Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.

Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

Nick Thornton

Nick Thornton is a financial writer covering retirement and health care issues for BenefitsPRO and ALM Media. He greatly enjoys learning from the vast minds in the legal, academic, advisory and money management communities when covering the retirement space. He's also written on international marketing trends, financial institution risk management, defense and energy issues, the restaurant industry in New York City, surfing, cigars, rum, travel, and fishing. When not writing, he's pushing into some land or water.