A recent article in the Globe and Mail highlights how retirement has changed for Canadians. People are working longer, saving less and having to forgo dreams of extended leisure. The article points out that 60% of the Canadian work force does not have  a pension plan. And the effects are not just financial:

John Mlacak, 73 Former Nortel manager faces a 30 per cent pension loss (via Globe&Mail)

“It’s also tearing the fabric of Canadian society. Retirement anxiety is changing our notion of personal wealth. Where once a house and two cars were symbols of success, today the measure is more likely to be the size of your nest egg. And as with any wealth metric, there is a class system. At the top of the system is a shrinking royalty. The majority of them are public servants: About 84 per cent of public-sector workers are pension plan members, most of whom have gold-plated pensions designed to guarantee retirees fixed incomes.”

Some fast facts :

• 84% of public service workers have pensions.
• 78% of these plans are gold plated defined benefit pensions
• 25% of private sector workers have a pension plan
• 16% of these plans are gold plated defined benefit pensions
• 11 million workers, or 60 per cent, of Canada’s workers have no pension at all
• 8 million or 45 per cent, have no pensions or registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs)

Read the full article, with interactive features and discussions,  here.