Workers Wayne Tomlinson, Alice Ballesteros and Gary Muckelroy brought the suit in 2004, arguing that by switching its defined benefit pension plan from a final averagepay formula to a cash balance formula, El Paso set payments for older, longer-service employees at significantly lower levels.
According to the U.S. Compensation Planning Survey and research by the compensation consulting firm Mercer, companies plan to offer employees an averagepay raise of 2.9 percent.
He would turn Medicare into a defined contribution plan that would pay retirees who turn 65 in 2021 or later a defined contribution equal to the average federal cost of a Medicare retiree in 2012 (less the Medicare premiums), which would then be allowed to grow at 1 percent a year.