Multiemployer pension funds, numbering about 100 nationwide and covering about 1.3 million people, are projected to fail within the next 20 years, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Adding fuel to the fire, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), the federal backstop for troubled pension plans, is already underfunded by $60 billion for multiemployer plans. PBGC, funded by premiums collected from defined-benefit plan sponsors, is forecast to run out of money for multiemployer plans by 2025, according to a 2017 projection by the agency.