The 2021 Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) Pension Survey provides a general overview of respondents’ pension plans, including information about the type of employees covered, the type of benefits offered, the forms of pension governance, and whether there have been recent significant changes to the plan(s). This type of information can help academic staff associations, where relevant, bargain more effectively over pensions and related issues.
The report is based on data from 77 academic staff associations and federations regarding the characteristics of their pension plans. Key findings include:
- Most responding associations (81%) had only one pension plan. A majority (52%) of associations had at least one defined benefit (DB) pension plan, 33% had at least one defined contribution (DC) plan, and 12% had at least one hybrid plan.
- Excluding the 5% of responding associations who reported having no pension plan, 22% of responding associations who had limited term appointment (LTA) faculty in their membership did not have a plan that covered LTAs, 51% of associations with contract academic staff (CAS) in their membership did not have a plan that covered CAS, and all responding associations who had regular tenure-track faculty members had a plan that covered regular tenure-track faculty.
- Plans that include non-permanent academics (CAS and LTAs) are more likely to be DC plans and less likely to be DB plans than plans that do not cover non-permanent academics.
- Most (63%) DB plans have conditional indexing rules, while 34% have guaranteed indexing.
- The majority (68%) of DB plan Trustee Boards include union/member appointees, 60% include employer appointees, 33% include retirees and 33% include Board of Governors appointees.
- Thirty-five percent of respondents indicated that they had bargained pension issues in their most recent round of bargaining. The most common issues raised were plan changes (46%), contribution rates (36%) and governance, CPP integration, and indexing (18% each).