From time to time, when I'm loping through a studio or gaping at the computer screen in my office, somebody comes up asks questions about the MPI Health Plan or MPI Pension Plan.
Like "How much pension am I going to get?" or "When do I qualify for a pension?" or "Is there enough money in the fund to pay my pension?"
Here are a few answers (and please go to the link above for way more details). Here are a few bullet points ...
The Individual Account part of the pension contains $3.745 billion.
The Defined Benefit Part of the pension (that the monthly annuity) contains $3.247 billion.
The Active Health Plan costs $12,000 per eligible per year.
Residuals paid to MPIPHP (supplemental markets and post sixties) -- $429 million.
To qualify for the Retiree Health Plan:
Age 62 with 15 Qualified Pension Years and 20,000 Contribution Hours (three years after age 40; 1 year after 2000)
Age 62 with 20 QUalified Pension Years and 20,000 Contribution Hours
Age 61 with 30 Qualified Pension Years and 55,000 Contribution Hours
Age 60 with 30 Qualified Pension Years and 60,000 Contribution Hours
We repeat this information from time to time because people tend to forget what pension and health benefits they've accumulated ... and some folks never absorb the information in the first place.
(Remember, there are two Motion Picture Industry pension plans, and three if you count the Animation Guild's 401(k) Plan).
Posts
3 comments:
Thank you for posting this information.
The Active Health Plan costs $12,000 per eligible per year.
For a family of four, does coverage cost $48,000/year ($12,000 x 4)? Or, would it cost $12,000 for the 839 member and a lesser amount for each dependent?
Understand this is average costs to the PLAN. Costs to participants are something else again, Single participants have no premiums, with one dependent it's $25/month, 2 or more dependents $50/month,
Thank you for the clarification. That seems about right, since Platinum coverage from Covered California would cost about ~$1000/month for myself and my husband.
I spoke with an ex-Dreamworks co-worker a few weeks ago about health care, and he had nothing but praise for the 839 health plan. For him, the 839 plan was "dirt cheap" because he "only paid $100 every quarter" for first-rate coverage for himself and his family. (He is not the first 839 member I've met who thought union dues covered the cost of 839 health and pension benefits). However, he thought freelance visual effects work outside of 839 shops paid better in terms of salary.
Because an 839 artist gets paid in benefits in addition to salary, this got us considering the value of his 839 health insurance. Neither of us receive health benefits from our employer at this time. I asked him how much more he would need to earn over his old Dreamworks salary in order to purchase 839-equivalent coverage, but he was not sure.
The $12,000 average figure helps me understand the "salary" value of the 839 health plan. To get equivalent coverage, my co-worker would have to spend $12,000/year in post-tax dollars in order to purchase a plan similar in quality to that of the 839 plan. If he's in the average visual effects tax bracket (25% Federal + 9.3% State + 6.2% Social Security), he would need to earn an additional $20,000 over his old Dreamworks salary in order to purchase equivalent 839 coverage with post-tax dollars.
That's just to make up for the missing health coverage benefit. It would not cover the missing pension benefits.
Post a Comment