5 ways to get great retirement benefits

One of the best ways to improve your retirement finances is to ask your employer to chip through a pension or 401 (k). But not all employers are willing to do so. Only 65 percent of private sector workers are offered retirement benefits from their employer, according to a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics analysis of March 2012 data from the National Compensation Survey. However, certain types of jobs and employers are more likely than others to provide retirement benefits. Here's how to increase your chances of getting a pension from your employer:
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Become a professional or manager. Your career choice plays a big role in the quality of services that you will get through your work. workers and management professionals are most likely in the industry for retirement benefits at work (79 percent). "Some research suggests that to attract quality employees in management, professional and related occupations, employers must provide medical benefits and pension higher rate than in other professions," according to the BLS report. However only 40 percent of workers in the service sector have access to retirement benefits, the lowest of any area.
Choose a field with high incomes. The top income earners in the top of the income distribution (85 percent) quarter are more than two times more likely to be offered a 401 (k) or a pension to their work than people with incomes in the last quarter (38 percent). But even being in the top half of the earnings distribution that you at least 10 points more likely than the typical worker to have a pension plan at work percentage done.
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Work full time. Full-time workers are almost twice as likely as part-to have access to pension time. The majority of full-time workers (74 percent) in the private sector are offered a retirement plan at work, but only 38 percent of part-time employees are eligible to participate.
Join a union. A map of the union could be your ticket to a pension because the unions negotiate better pensions on behalf of their members. "Unionized workers generally have higher rates of access to benefits than their non-unionized counterparts," BLS found. "While unionized workers represent a relatively small proportion of workers in the private sector - about 7.2 percent in 2011, according to data from the Current Population Survey - through collective bargaining, they are generally able to negotiate higher wages and benefits for their workers. "Almost all members of the Union (92 percent) of pension benefits, compared to 62 percent of non-unionized employees.
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Working for a large company. Large employers are often better able to provide pension benefits due to economies of scale. "The more business, the more likely that the institution is to provide their employees with medical and retirement benefits," BLS found. "Economies of scale seem to play an important role in providing these services, which allows large companies to offer medical benefits and pension significantly higher than the rate for small businesses." About 86 percent of companies with 500 or more employees offer a retirement plan, and so do 79 percent of companies with 100 to 499 workers. But less than half (46 percent) of employers with 49 or fewer employees are able to offer a pension plan for them.