A Note on Pension Coverage and Earnings Replacement Rates of Retired Men: A Closer Look at Distributions

Abstract

In spite of the importance of registered pension plans (RPPs) in discussions of Canada's retirement income system, very few Canadian studies have examined the financial outcomes experienced by RPP members and RPP non-members. Using data from the Longitudinal Administrative Database (LAD), this paper compares the distributions of earnings replacement rates achieved by retired men who were or were not members of a registered pension plan (RPP) in 1991 and/or 1992. The distributions of earnings replacement rates of men who were not RPP members are far more dispersed than those of men who were RPP members. And while the average earnings replacement rates of the two groups are generally comparable, the median earnings replacement rates of RPP non-members are lower than those of RPP members as a result of asymmetry in the distributions.