This article evaluates the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), which is the federal law that governs employee retirement benefit plans with the purpose of creating a national standard to which all such plans should conform. The authors argue, however, that ERISA's structure is too rigid, burdensome and expensive to oversee employee benefits provided voluntarily by employers in an economy with a population whose dynamics and demographics are fundamentally changing. Thus they argue that Congress should devise a new system to address the needs of today's economy and workplace. Congress passed ERISA in 1974. The Act established very particular minimum standards in many areas that directly affected the design, maintenance, and operation of employee benefit plans and associated funding arrangements (Macey & Young, 2002, p. 5). However, the authors note that since 1974, Congress has amended the law and its related tax code provisions at least 20 times. Moreover, regulatory agencies have issued hundreds of documents aimed at explaining how employers could comply with the law (Macey & Young, 2002, p. 5).
The authors maintain that ERISA has served the country and American workers well since it was passed. But they point also to legal and employee benefits experts who argue that the original act was created at a time when both the workplace and the workforce were very different (Macey & Young, 2002, p. 5). For example, they point out that since 1974, new d
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