Definitions

Active participants - include any workers currently in employment covered by a plan and who are earning or retaining credited service under a plan. Active participants also include nonvested former employees who have not yet incurred a break in service.

Automatic Enrollment - The practice of enrolling all eligible employees in a defined contribution plan and beginning participant deferrals without requiring the employees to submit a request to participate. An employer's plan design specifies how these automatic deferrals will be invested. Employees who do not want to make contributions to the plan must actively file a request to be excluded from the plan. Participants can generally change the amount of pay that is deferred and how it is invested.

Automatic Escalation (of 401(k) plan contributions) -Increasing or specifying a default contribution rate for participants that do not otherwise elect-out or affirmatively specify a contribution rate. For example, a plan might automatically enroll an individual in the plan at a contribution rate of 3 percent of salary during the first year of participation, then 4 percent during the second year, then 5 percent during the third year, and then 6 percent thereafter.

Collective Bargaining Agreement - A written agreement or contract arrived at as the result of negotiations between the employer and a union. The agreement typically contains terms and conditions of employment for employees covered by the contract. For this study we are particularly interested in wage, health and pension provisions.

Collective Bargaining Process - The process of mutually determining terms and conditions of employment through negotiations between representatives of an employer and a union. The results of the bargaining are set forth in a Collective Bargaining Agreement. For the purposes of this study we are interested to know when the contributions to the plan and/or the benefits paid by the plan are subject to the collective bargaining process even if only some of the employees covered by the plan are members of the union that negotiated the contract.

Defined Benefit (DB) Plan - A type of qualified plan where the plan sponsor provides a guaranteed benefit. In a typical single-employer defined benefit plan, benefits are based on a formula that generally includes as inputs years of service and either a flat dollar amount or the participants' average compensation. Defined benefit plans express benefits as an annuity, but may offer separating, eligible participants the opportunity to receive lump sum distributions.