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Benefits June 22, 2007
Canadian Pension Coverage Virtually Flat in 2006
June 22, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.COM) - New data from
Statistics Canada shows that the number of Canadian workers
covered by a pension plan remained at 5.7 million as of
January 1, 2006, virtually unchanged from 2005.
Reported by Fred Schneyer
A CBC news report said the annual survey found that the percentage of workers with pensions continues to edge down. Fewer than four in 10 (38.5%) workers were covered by a pension plan at the start of last year – down half a percent from the year prior.
The data also showed that pension plans are much more common among public sector workers where 84% of the workforce are participants, according to the news report. In the private sector, 25.9% are covered by pension plans.
About 4.6 million of the 5.7 million who have pension plans at work have defined benefit plans, the data indicated. That number has risen by only 30,000 since 2000.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of the almost 900,000 who have defined contribution plans work in the private sector – up almost a percent from the year before.