Railroad Retirement Act 48 Stat. 1283 (1934)
RAILROAD RETIREMENT ACT 48 Stat. 1283 (1934)
This act established a retirement and pension plan for railroad employees engaged in interstate commerce. Congress specified "promoting efficiency and safety in interstate transportation" among the purposes of the act. Each employee, whose participation was mandatory, would be required to retire after thirty years service or at sixty-five, receiving thereafter an annuity based upon his length of service. Contributions from both employee and the carrier would finance these payments. A Railroad Retirement Board would adjust the contributions, initially set at two percent of a worker's salary and doubled by the carrier, and would administer the act. Congress further authorized the board to make actuarial surveys and keep pertinent records and data. The act vested district courts with jurisdiction to enforce board orders and to review administrative questions.
A 5–4 Supreme Court voided the law in railroad retirement board v. alton (1935) as a violation of due process of law and outside the commerce power, a decision effectively nullified in steward machine co. v. davis (1937).
David Gordon
(1986)