Pension Fund Report 251 



Our pension system is now constituted on an old-age basis 

 exclusively. The idea is gaining strength that long service is 

 also entitled to its reward, and that after twenty-five years of 

 faithful work, the employee should be given the opportunity 

 to retire on pension, (and, if he finds it necessary so to sup- 

 plement his income, to engage in such other less exacting work 

 as he feels able to undertake), in order that the remaining 

 years of his life may yield a personal profit and satisfaction 

 which are not to be enjoyed during the working life of the 

 average wage-earner, but which are a part of everyone's birth- 

 right and for which any just and successful economic scheme 

 must make provision. So far as the Museum is concerned, 

 experience indicates that on the present basis few of our em- 

 ployees avail themselves of their right to retire unless driven 

 to do so by physical necessity. The probability is that the 

 number of employees who would retire on a service basis 

 would be small. 



This is of course due to the fact that Museum personnel 

 is composed largely of workers whose work is their first inter- 

 est in life and therefore their most vital and enjoyable form of 

 self-expression. It is probably among the clerical and mechan- 

 ical workers that most retirements on a service basis would be 

 sought. The additional liability against the Fund would be 

 slight, and the granting of the privilege could not act other- 

 wise than to improve the general morale of the workers. Such 

 additional financial obligation as a service pension provision 

 would involve, moreover, might be compensated for by the tak- 

 ing out of group insurance (briefly discussed below), to take 

 the place of Pension Fund death gratuities. 



The problem of the status of part-time employees is a diffi- 

 cult one. So far as has been ascertained at this time, the 

 opinion prevails that nine months per year of continuous serv- 

 ice should be required of every employee who is to be classed 

 as "permanent," and that in no event should any employee be 

 permitted to become a subscriber whose name and yearly salary 

 rate is not included in the annual budget. 



A committee is at the present time engaged in the considera- 

 tion of these and other proposed revisions of the Rules and 

 Regulations, and in its investigations is giving attention to all 



