Dear valued employee….

This Company has faced severe economic and financial challenges during the past three years, threatening our long-term survival. As an important contributor to our success and as a retiree now or at some point down the road, we thought it a good time to update you as to minor long-term changes to various programs.

We are considering making modest, but important, changes to our long-term pension program. It is important to note that you will continue to receive the benefits you are receiving now. The majority of these changes will have a modest impact on employees who retire decades in the future.

We are planning to slow down the future growth rate of spending on our pension program. Note that various critics of our proposed changes have referred to them as spending cuts. These are not spending cuts.

Note that we will spend more money on the program each year than we do now. Note that you will receive more money from the pension program each year than you do now. Note that cost of living increases will still be paid if appropriate. Note that new entrants to the program will still be routinely added.

The current age to draw full benefits for the program is already 66 for those born between 1943 and 1954. The age for full benefits for those born in 1960 and later is already 67. Based on financial reality and necessity, we will raise the age to receive full benefits by one year, to age 68 by 2050…or 40 years from now! We will enact a further increase to age 69 in the year 2075…or 65 years from now!

As you can easily see, these changes will have little to no impact upon current retirees, or the vast majority of retires, in coming decades. These modest changes will have a slight impact on your children and your grandchildren, with the slight extension to age 68 or age 69 more than offset by 1) the much stronger financial position of the program following these changes and 2) the high likelihood that younger people today will live and work longer in coming decades.

We will also implement a program adjustment to slightly increase the growth rate of future benefits for lower income retirees as compared to higher income retirees. Again, ALL income groups will receive rising benefits each year, even as we strengthen these programs for decades to come.

We would appreciate your support of these modest changes. Making small changes now, with most changes to take place decades from now, will enhance the viability and financial soundness of this program for years to come…for you…your children…and your grandchildren.

• This discussion is in line with proposed modest changes to the future of Social Security. Such changes, referred to by many as “tinkering around the edges,” are designed to make the program stronger for generations to come.
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