American Airlines Sued Over Calculation of Retirement Benefits

American Airlines Inc.‘s pension plans aren’t paying their participants sufficient monthly benefits, a potential class action filed in federal court says.

American doesn’t pay joint and survivor benefits in amounts that satisfy the Employee Retirement Income Act’s actuarial equivalence requirements, according to the complaint filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

ERISA requires benefit plans to pay married participants a qualified joint and survivor annuity, which is “an annuity for the participant’s life with a contingent annuity payable to the participant’s spouse for the rest of the spouse’s life,” the complaint filed by ...