Today, just 14% of private-sector US workers have access to a defined-benefit pension plan, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics , compared with roughly 40% in 1979. On the upside, 70% have access to a defined-contribution plan, typically a 401(k) or its equivalent.Employers, always looking to cut costs, were eager to pivot from the then-predominant defined-benefit pension plans and offer 401(k) programs instead. Workers, meanwhile, saw a worthy tradeoff: Pension plans made it difficult to job-hop an ...