August 23, 1984
I am pleased to sign into law H.R. 4280, the Retirement Equity Act of 1984. This important
legislation is the first private pension bill in our history to recognize explicitly the importance of
women both to the American family and to the Nation's labor force. It contains significant
measures to enhance women's ability to earn pensions in their own right. It improves and protects
the vital role of pensions as retirement income to widows.
An end to inequities in the provision of pension benefits to women has been a top priority of my
administration. In September 1983 I sent to Congress our own pension equity bill. I am pleased
that most of that bill has been incorporated into this legislation I have now approved.
Existing pension rules, when originally enacted, did not fully anticipate the dual roles many
women have come to play as both members of the paid labor force and as wives and mothers
during periods of full-time work in the home. Provisions in many pension plans now operate in
ways that fail to recognize paid work performed by women at certain periods in their lives and
penalize them for time spent in childrearing. To address this inequity, the Retirement Equity Act
lowers the age limits on participation and vesting, permitting more pension credits to be earned
during the early working years when women are most likely to be employed. The legislation also
eases break-in-service rules so that parents who bear children and stay home to care for them in
the early years will no longer lose the pension credits they previously earned while working.
The Retirement Equity Act also clarifies that each person in a marriage has a right to benefit from
the other's pension. No longer will one member of a married couple be able to sign away survivor
benefits for the other. A spouse's written consent now will be required on any decision not to
provide survivors' protection. The legislation also helps assure that when a vested employee dies
before retirement, the employee's surviving spouse will benefit from the pension credits the
employee has earned, and it restricts considerably the latitude now allowed pension plans to
impose additional conditions on survivors' benefits. Survivors' benefits will be paid automatically
in more instances than now. In addition, the bill makes it clear that State courts can allocate
pension rights in divorce cases and other domestic relations settlements.
The enactment of this legislation has been a bipartisan effort, and I wish to thank the many
Members of both the House and Senate for their hard work. This law is a most significant
addition to our continuing efforts to remove economic discrimination against women in our
nation.
Note: As enacted, H.R. 4280 is Public Law 98 - 397, approved August 23.