AARP Does as It Does, Not as It Says - For What It's Worth - Comcast.net Finance

It's like the chain-smoking parent scolding his or her children about cigarettes. It's an act that people today might call "ironic," continuing the societal penchant for misusing that word. Or that others might more accurately identify as hypocrisy.

But whatever you choose to call this particular act I'm referring to here, the headline alone -- from Ron Lieber's piece in the New York Times about it -- says it all: "Et Tu, AARP? Good Guys Cut 401(k)s, Too". Yes, you read that correctly. And now my ramblings and link to an Alanis Morissette video make a little more sense.

Lieber, adeptly swinging at the Titleist placed on a tee by AARP, expertly captures the essence of this story:

"Given its track record of fighting for the financial rights of retirees, it seems shocking that the organization would turn around and take from its own 2,200 or so employees what they’d hoped would be a big pile of matching money. It's almost as if the Teamsters decided to build a new national headquarters and hired nonunion labor to do it."

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Sure, this is just the latest in a string of similar such cuts made by employers in every corner of this struggling economy. Lieber mentions blue-chip companies like Xerox Corp. and Black & Decker Corp. alongside a nonprofit like PBS, just to name a few. And my colleague Renee DeFranco noted in her piece a few weeks ago that Americans have plenty of other retirement-savings problems to be worrying about.

Even with that backdrop, though, this cut stings -- for its symbolic meaning. It is a gut-punch that brings about a feeling like the one that prompted the mythical exchange where a young boy is said to have desperately asked fallen baseball star Shoeless Joe Jackson, on trial for helping his team intentionally lose the World Series, "Say it ain't so, Joe?"

But in fairness, as Lieber's Times piece goes on to note, AARP does still offer an old-fashioned pension plan, which is increasingly rare. And the organization also claims that suspending its 401(k) match actually benefits employees by keeping the organization from having to conduct further layoffs.

" 'Everyone is sharing in the burden equally,' [AARP legislative counsel and policy director David] Certner said. 'It's a tradeoff of jobs versus benefits. We're making sure people still have a job. That was our first priority.' "

Sounds reasonable enough, right? Not so fast. For an in-depth look at why AARP's logic is questionable at best and downright unfair at worst (plus a chance to role-play and figure out what all of this could mean for you), browse on over to the New York Times for Lieber's spot-on analysis.

What do you think of AARP's decision to suspend its 401(k) match? Has your employer made this or any other benefits cutbacks to combat the recession?

Message Edited by Anthony_Catalano on 07-13-2009 02:28 PM