RAILROAD RETIREMENT ACTS

RAILROAD RETIREMENT ACTS. President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved a railroad retirement act on 27 June 1934, with the comment that it was "crudely drawn" and would require revision. The act called for a federal board to oversee a system of retirement allowances for certain categories of employees, with two-thirds of the cost to be borne by employers and the balance by the employees. No adequate actuarial studies had been made; carriers claimed that their share would prove a crushing load on the finances of most railroads. In March 1935 the U.S. Supreme Court, in Railroad Retirement Board v. Alton Railroad Company, declared the act unconstitutional. Two bills were passed the following August, the first (Wagner-Crosser Railroad Retirement Act) providing a retirement plan and the second imposing special taxes for its support. These acts retained several features that the Supreme Court had found objectionable in the earlier enactment. The railroads renewed their objections and won an injunction against the new acts on 30 June 1936.In May 1937, after protracted negotiation, new legislation gained the approval of both parties and a month later passed through Congress with little opposition.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Graebner, William. A History of Retirement: The Meaning and Function of an American Institution, 1885–1978. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1980.

Schreiber, David B. The Legislative History of the Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Systems. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1978.

W. A.Robinson/a. r.

See alsoPension Plans ; Railroad Retirement Board v. Alton Railroad Company ; Railroads ; Retirement .