In 2007, only 45% of large companies subsidized health insurance for early retirees, compared with 88% in 1991, according to Hewitt Associates. As a result, many employees who retire before age 65, when they become eligible for Medicare, would have to find a new source of health insurance, such as the individual coverage market, Rick McGill, head of retiree medical consulting at Hewitt, said

Marruecos encabeza la lista de países de procedencia, con 277.671 afiliados, seguido de Rumanía, con 272.886; Ecuador, con 255.631 y Colombia, con 146.467.

De los 2.073.658 afiliados de marzo, 1.350.811 procedían de países extra comunitarios y 722.847 de la Unión Europea.

Del total de inscritos, 1.254.304 eran hombres y 819.354, mujeres.
Por comunidades, Cataluña fue la que registró el mayor número de afiliados, seguida de Madrid, Andalucía y Murcia.

Del total, 687 441 extranjeros eran procedentes de la Unión Europea y el resto, 1 316 398, de otros países, precisaron fuentes del Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales. La mayor parte de los afiliados extranjeros procede de Marruecos, 267 631; luego Ecuador, con 253 921 afiliados; Rumania, con 238 314, y Colombia, con 140 749.

No obstante, en el caso de los ecuatorianos, esta cifra se redujo con relación a abril de 2007, cuando se registraron 268 700 personas. En cambio, en el caso de Colombia la cifra subió casi en el doble, pues en esa fecha se anotó un total de 70 989 personas afiliadas.

Dentro del régimen general, el sector que registró el mayor número de afiliados extranjeros fue el de la construcción, con 377 007 personas, que suponen el 25,8% de los inscritos en este régimen de seguridad social.

Le sigue el sector de la hostelería, con 233 161 afiliados (el 15,95% del total en el régimen general); las actividades inmobiliarias y de alquiler, servicios a empresas, con 225 912 afiliados (el 15,46%) y el comercio y la reparación de vehículos de motor, con 214 709 (14,69%).

Por sexos, del total de los afiliados extranjeros, 1 233 159 fueron hombres y 770 680, mujeres. Cataluña acumula el mayor número de extranjeros.

'We have a health care crisis. We don't have an entitlement crisis,' says David Certner, legislative policy director of the AARP, which represents seniors." What the hell is that? We have a health care crisis, not an entitlement crisis? Here are the numbers for all of you weenies out there, "We need to get out of Iraq, Mr. Limbaugh, so we can spend money on education and on health care for our children." The cost of government benefits for seniors, $27,289 per person in 2007. "The federal government spent $952 billion in 2007 on elderly benefits, up from $601 billion in 2000. It's the biggest function of the federal government." It's the biggest function of the federal government, senior care!

Thirty-five percent of the federal budget is spent on benefits for senior citizens. It was 32% in 2004. Thirty-five percent. The cost, if you're not a seasoned citizen, "The cost of senior benefits is equal to $10,673 for every non-senior household." And this is only going to get worse. The Boomers are just starting to join that group known as the seniors, known as the seasoned citizens on this program, and there are a lot of those Boomers. This is liberalism. This is the result of unchecked, uncontrolled liberalism, which contains many elements. One of the most insidious elements is liberalism poisoning the minds of people into believing that because they are Americans they are entitled to be taken care of by other Americans. This whole entitlement mentality, this dependent mentality -- I know this is angering some of you seniors. I don't mean to be doing that. You were playing along according to the rules when you were growing up, I understand that, but at some point it's just like the automobile companies cannot sustain it anymore. They can't continue to pay health care, retirement, and pensions for people no longer working for them. So what, they look to the government to take it over, the government takes a portion of it over. You talk about the math, they're trying to figure out the delegates in the Democrats, the math of this does not work out unless something about this is changed, because the tax rates necessary to support this kind of thing are going to be so prohibitive, nobody is going to bother to work if nothing happens on this. This is culturally destructive.

Remember the ad campaigns for Ford ("At Ford, Quality is Job One"), and Maytag (the lonely Maytag repairman)? Those ads have faded away, and so has the sentiment behind them. Have you noticed the decline in quality of products under those two great names? They're not alone – many great names are suffering the same fate. Even Craftsman and Kenmore, the stalwart store brands of Sears, aren't what they used to be.

One of the factors behind this is greed, pure and simple. Companies have become so short-term, bottom-line oriented, that investment in the future has suffered. And what greater investment in the future could there be than satisfying customers so they return for more? Incentive-based compensation programs have wreaked havoc on our values. We've all witnessed the huge windfalls that company executives have reaped while they drove their companies to bankruptcy, by cooking the books to achieve short-term objectives. Not only does this hurt the companies and their investors, but employee loyalty and pride suffers as well.

Businesses, in an effort to trim their costs to improve their financial outlook (or at least their "look"), often reduce benefits to employees; that is, if they don't lay them off first. I recently reviewed a resume from someone who had been downsized, and was looking for a new professional opportunity. It was clear that he embodied one of the very things that had cost him his job. He spoke of his focus on "Quailty." Wow! If I was looking for resluts, he'd be my man.

Unions were responsible for much of the growth of the middle class in the past. But many of the unions have succumbed to the same element, greed, and have lost their luster. In addition, they've lost much of their competitive edge. Instead of providing job skills and job opportunities, they've focused on job security, and in some cases, so much specialization that they've priced themselves out of the market. Unions have a place in our future, but they have to adapt to it.

For those of us planning for retirement, Social Security's no security - many of us have paid in to the program for years, only to hear that our checks might not be coming when we're finally able to collect them. Gone are the days of great pension programs in private industry. Many have been replaced with stock option programs, which make retirement a game of chance, rather than a matter of choice. Of course, not everyone can improve their lot by misrepresenting the facts to drive the value of their company's stocks up, and then cash in before anybody catches on, can they?

In economics, it has often been said that a rising tide lifts all boats. The analogy doesn't take into account those boats that are firmly tied to their moorings. In many ways, we are anchored by our greed, and our tendency to avoid low-paying and low-skilled jobs, choosing outsourcing instead. Our middle class is shrinking in the process. The gulf between the upper and lower classes is growing wider. But wasn't it the middle class that was responsible for most of the progress we've made over the past hundred years or so? We're failing our youth by making them feel that being in the middle class isn't good enough for them. We've adopted our parents' notion that we want the next generation to be better off than ours, but ignored what it takes to achieve that – sayin' it don't make it so.

Once upon a time, the term, "Made in USA," meant something about the high quality of the goods and the pride of the workers who made them. Our great nation needs to return to those bygone days. We need to take pride in our work, and concern ourselves with the quality of the goods we make. We need to export our products instead of our production. Our lives and our national security depend on it. It's no longer about me. It's about U.S.

Although the presidential campaign has been going full force here for the better part of a year, large numbers of voters remain undecided in the final days. Many of them have been attending multiple candidate events in an attempt to make up their minds.

Take, for example, Nancy Baldwin, who turned out yesterday for a rally for Edwards in Boone. She pronounced herself "very impressed" with Edwards after the event but still couldn't say who she would caucus for. "Clinton, Obama and Edwards all stand for change," she told The Fix. "I am ready for change."

Given the craziness in the final days, it's sometimes hard to see the forest for the trees. Here's our attempt to do just that.

DEMOCRATS

The race -- as it has been for many months -- is a three-way affair between Clinton, Obama and Edwards.

What's clear from being on the ground here in Iowa is that Edwards's surge over the past week is real. The former North Carolina senator's closing message is extremely sharp, appealing directly to those who feel most disenchanted with the state of the country after nearly eight years of George W. Bush.

"They have an iron-fisted grip on your democracy," roared Edwards at the Boone event, referring to the insurance, drug and oil companies he has railed against for months. "I am not going to allow corporate greed to steal our children's future."

Edwards is also relying heavily on his personal story -- his father's work in a mill, his humble upbringing -- to speak to rural voters who are already inclined to be for him. Edwards appears to be be running strongest in rural areas in the western part of the state. It is no accident that his schedule yesterday took him to Carroll, Denison and Sioux City -- all in western Iowa.

Edwards's staying power has forced a recalculation on the part of Obama who at one time expected the caucuses to turn into a two-person race between him and Clinton. Instead, Obama now finds himself in an unexpected fight for the anti-Clinton vote with the increasingly feisty Edwards. Hoping to slow Edwards's momentum, Obama and his campaign have begun questioning whether Edwards is in fact an agent for real change in the political system by focusing on the amount of outside money being spent on behalf of the former North Carolina senator.

Obama is also seeking to draw contrasts between the paths that he and Edwards took to get to this place. At the rally last night in Indianola, Obama noted that he eschewed the chance to go to a high-powered law firm in order to become a community organizer -- drawing an implicit contrast with the affluence accrued by Edwards as a trial lawyer. (A side note: Obama is starting to use the term "trial lawyer" more often on the stump to describe Edwards, perhaps hoping to capitalize on the negative associations many voters have with that particular profession.)

While Obama and Edwards are clearly fighting over a similar pool of voters, Obama's strength is consolidated in the more urban eastern part of the state where the state's liberal base is primarily gathered.

As Obama and Edwards fight, Clinton is seeking to close the deal with an appeal to voters' pragmatism. In her own comments as well as those made by her husband, she is focused on convincing voters that serious times call for a serious politician -- one who has been tested before and knows what to expect once in office.

At the same time, the Clintons are trying to portray their Democratic rivals -- particularly Obama -- as risky choices for voters at a time when steadiness and dependability are crucial. Hillary Clinton today told USA Today that she was "not asking voters to take me on a leap of faith" and last night former president Bill Clinton spent 20 minutes detailing his wife's record of accomplishments dating to when the two met in law school. "She never picks up a problem that isn't better when she put it down," he said.

Anecdotal evidence points to a small gain for Clinton over the weekend, gains potentially attributable to the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benzanir Bhutto and the foreign policy discussion it triggered. But, it's important not to overstate that movement; senior strategists for each of the three campaigns acknowledge the race is stunningly close and that any of the trio could wind up on top or in third place on Thursday night.

REPUBLICANS

If the Iowa caucuses had been held a week ago, there seems little argument that Huckabee would have won. On the shoulders of evangelical voters, Huckabee had passed Romney in most polls and seemed to be growing in strength beyond all predictions.

But then Romney's negative ads started to penetrate the collective consciousness of Republican voters. Romney has attacked Huckabee relentlessly on television for the past several weeks for his record on crime and illegal immigration -- two touchstone issues for Republican base voters.

Although voters insist they dislike negative ads and pay little attention to the claims made in them, the exact opposite is true. Negative ads are run because they work. And thanks to Romney's assault on Huckabee, the former Massachusetts governor has clawed back into the lead in Iowa thanks in large part to an erosion of Huckabee's support among evangelical voters.

Romney's ads have been all the more effective because Huckabee has chosen not to respond to them with ads of his own -- although word out of Iowa this afternoon was that the former Arkansas governor was -- finally -- going negative on Romney.

Why didn't Huckabee respond sooner? We don't know for sure, but two factors contributed to that decision.

First, Huckabee has struggled throughout the campaign to raise the millions of dollars that would allow him to compete on semi-equal turf with Romney. That funding deficits means that even if Huckabee had hit back against Romney earlier it would likely have been drown out by the flood of Romney advertising.

Second, Huckabee's momentum in Iowa was due in large part to the sense of hopeful optimism that surrounded his candidacy.That sentiment grew organically, but because Huckabee did almost no paid communication (TV, radio, direct mail, phone calls) to reinforce the idea with voters, he was decidedly susceptible to a quick reversal in voters' ideas about him. If he had pivoted to a negative campaign against Romney earlier, it might have undone in a moment all of the good will he had built up.

Huckabee has done himself no favors over the past week either, repeatedly flubbing details about the situation in Pakistan following Bhutto's assassination and, in the process, raising questions in voters' minds about whether he is up to the job. Remember that the final days of any race is when voters are really paying attention and trying to decipher which of the candidates they can see being president. Huckabee's slips on Pakistan are amplified given that context.

With Romney and Huckabee essentially tied in recent polling, turning out committed supporters is at the heart of each man's "win" strategy.

It's an open secret that there is no comparison between the field organizations built by Huckabee and Romney. Romney's is state of the art, well financed and tested; his strong win at the Iowa Straw Poll in August proved that his strategists knew how to find and turn out their backers.

Huckabee's organization, on the other hand, is an organization only in the loosest sense of the word. It is cobbling together of evangelical churches, home-schoolers and other allies of the former governor. But, there is very little cohesion between the various groups working for Huckabee -- no unifying force.

Today, the momentum and organizational strength clearly favors Romney. But, Huckabee has made himself a viable candidate in this contest largely on the strength of his personality, which remains his strongest selling point in the final hours of the race.

But occasionally, consumers overlook money that's rightfully theirs. As the year moves toward a close, we offer several possible sources of no-strings-attached cash. Don't quit your day job; we're not talking about big bucks. But as those holiday bills start to arrive, every little bit helps. Some examples:

•Currency conversion refund. If you traveled overseas in the past 10 years and used a credit card, you're eligible for a rebate of at least $25.

The rebate stems from the $336 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit against the major credit card issuers, which were accused of failing to disclose currency conversion fees. These fees can add up to 3% of the cost of foreign purchases. The settlement affects consumers who used a credit or debit card with a Visa, MasterCard or Diner's Club logo, for foreign purchases and transactions between Feb. 1, 1996, and Nov. 8, 2006.

If you spent more than $2,500 outside the USA and can estimate how many days you spent abroad, you can apply for a rebate of up to 1% of your transactions, based on a formula tied to typical spending patterns.

Frequent travelers who can estimate the amount they spent each year can apply for a rebate of up to 3% of their transactions. That doesn't mean you'll receive the entire amount. If the amount of claims filed exceeds the settlement, the payouts will be reduced. The deadline for filing is May 30, 2008.

To file a claim, you'll have to provide personal information, including an account number for at least one of your credit cards. For that reason, consumers should be alert for lookalike scams designed to steal personal information, says Edward Johnson, president of the Better Business Bureau for Washington, D.C., and eastern Pennsylvania.

"While this particular class action is legitimate, we fully anticipate copycat offers to emerge," Johnson says. "Scammers will attempt to confuse and deceive consumers over this issue."

If you respond by mail, send your information to the authorized mailing address: U.S. District Court Settlement Administrator, P.O. Box 290, Philadelphia, PA 19105-0290. To file an online claim, go to ccfsettlement.com and make sure that "https" appears in your browser window. That means your information will be encrypted before it's transmitted.

•Claim your tax refund. Every year, thousands of Americans leave their tax refunds on the table. For tax year 2006, the IRS says it has about $110 million in refund checks for about 115,000 taxpayers. Average unclaimed refund: $953.

In most cases, these are checks that were returned to the government because the taxpayers moved and failed to inform the IRS of their new address. If you might be eligible, go to irs.gov and click the link marked "Where's My Refund?" To use the tool, you'll need to provide your Social Security number, your filing status and the amount of the refund on your 2006 return.

The National Taxpayers Union also offers a search tool for unclaimed refunds at www.ntu.org.

Again, be alert for fraud. The IRS doesn't send e-mails to taxpayers who haven't claimed their refunds. If you receive an e-mail claiming that you're eligible for a refund, delete it. These e-mails are "phishing" scams that are designed to obtain personal information coveted by identity thieves.

•Claim your property. About $32.8 billion in unclaimed property is sitting in state treasuries. This property includes stocks, uncashed dividend checks, forgotten bank accounts, lawsuit settlements and undelivered refunds.

Some companies offer to help consumers find unclaimed property, for a fee. But you don't need to pay someone to find out if any of the money belongs to you, says Noreen Perrotta, deputy editor of Consumer Reports Money Adviser. You can search for free at missingmoney.com, a website operated by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators. The site also provides an online form you can use to file a claim with the state that's holding your property.

Occasionally, people discover they've inherited money from long-lost relatives, Perrotta says, but the average value of lost property claims is about $100.

All of your personal banking and credit card information, your birthdate and your social security data are worth about $21 on the Internet, according to a study released today.

And much of that data may have been stolen from government offices, says the report by computer security firm Symantec Corp.

Symantec says thousands of Internet chatrooms and websites openly sell credit card and personal information for the purpose of identity theft -- and are doing plenty of business.

"I have valid CC (credit card) and bank loggins (sic)," bragged one person asking to be contacted by interested parties.

"Anyone interested in buying operative USA, UK & Canada CC with billing info and CVV (a credit card security number): harvesting--tomyahoo.ca.

"Reasonable prices," said another.

Symantec, the company responsible for the popular Norton Anti-Virus program, says it monitors many of these Internet properties to better understand the identity-theft issue.

The findings are part of a 120-page semi-annual report on online security issues and threats. The report focuses on problems that emerged during the last six months of 2006.

"Bad guys have a tendency to want to brag a bit," said Dean Turner, executive editor of the report.

"All of the information we gather is in public Internet Relay Chat servers. ... They are filled with lots and lots of people."

An individual's credit card information, by itself, will sell for $1 to $6 US in any of these chat rooms, Turner said. An entire identity can be bought for as little as $18 US ($21 Cdn).

What could be even more disturbing is where the personal information comes from. According to Symantec, governments were responsible for as much as 25 per cent of all leaked information .

The second- and third-biggest contributors to data loss are the health-care industry (20 per cent) and educational institutions (14 per cent), Symantec says.

And most of the information isn't going to hackers who break into government computer systems. About 54 per cent of all data lost is just being carried out the door. Hacking accounts for only 13 per cent.

"The major cause is theft or loss ... stealing hard drives out of machines," Turner said.

With new methods of data storage, it's easy to walk into a government building and steal information, he said. Thumb drives and MP3 players are capable of copying files, while computer terminals in unsecured locations can be pried open by a thief who steals the hard drive and all of the information on it.

In 2003, he said, four computers containing confidential personal information on more than 120,000 citizens were stolen from the Canada Revenue Agency.

In January, a doctor at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children lost a laptop containing the personal data of more than 2,900 patients. The incident prompted Ontario's privacy commissioner, Ann Cavoukian, to require encryption of all personal data before it is moved from an office setting.

"It is certainly something to be alarmed about," Turner said.

What's worse is that the amount of data loss may be even higher. Turner said governments, health-care facilities and educational institutions are required by law to report data breaches as soon as they occur. The private sector isn't bound by such rules.

In its report, Symantec urges governments and private businesses to require mandatory encryption of sensitive data. That way, even if the information is stolen, thieves won't be able to access it.

While there are no statistics on identity fraud, credit card fraud accounts for more than $300 million in losses every year, according to recent statistics from Visa Canada.

Symantec's report uses information it collected between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2006, from its offices in more than 180 countries and from some of the 120 million users of its security products.

At request, anti-virus firm Symantec checked two high-traffic websites — FreeCreditScore.com, operated by Experian, and TrueCredit.com, operated by TransUnion — and found hundreds of "typo squatters" misdirecting consumers to imposter Web pages.

STORY: 'Free' credit reports sometimes aren't free

Typo squatters set up Web pages with Internet addresses that are slightly different from the location of the official site. Their aim: to capture visits from Web users who mistype the official address.

Most of the imposter sites routed visitors to still other websites selling credit-related services, thereby earning an advertising kickback, says Friedrichs.

A couple of examples: freecreditrepotrt.com, registered to Caribbean Online International Ltd., and trudecredit.com, registered to Wan-Fu China Ltd. A visitor to these pages sees a bare bones listing of links to other commercial sites selling credit services.

Imposter sites typically lack privacy policies and contact information, according to a 2005 study by the World Privacy Forum.

That 2005 study found typo squatters operating 233 websites with addresses similar to AnnualCreditReport.com, the website that distributes free credit reports as mandated by federal law. Researchers found one imposter site collecting Social Security numbers to share with other companies. The site was taken offline in June 2005.

Consumers should expect the worst from imposter sites. "Typo squatters act in bad faith," says Friedrichs. "In most cases, these sites are registered for the purposes of advertising, but they can also host malicious activities."

While the new data collection could add to the annoyance of air travel for the masses of air passengers, the move would pose a special challenge for those of us for whom the question of gender is more complicated than checking one of the two boxes.

Now, I fly a lot. And while some people may see me as female, and others as male, the fact of the matter is that almost no one looks at the gender written on my driver's license. It's there, but right now, the only time it is being checked is when a screener double-checks that the name matches the one on the ticket. Besides, most people use their eyes to determine gender and only if they are particularly confused, will they look at such documentation.

In some states, a legal gender change is a relatively straightforward process, while other states demand proof of medical intervention such as surgery or hormones, options that many transgender people cannot afford and some would just rather not pursue. A few states, such as Ohio, where I was born, won't let someone change their birth certificate at all, no matter what steps they take. Federal agencies like the Passport Agency and the Social Security Administration have their own rules, which can be more stringent than state rules. So that means some people may have a drivers license that says male, but a passport that says female, or vice versa.

I'm all for making the skies safer, but security for all should not come at the expense of making an already vulnerable group even more likely to be singled out for harassment. I hope that, in addition to making sure the benefits of any changes outweigh the costs and hassles, that the TSA privacy folks also looks into making sure that the system provides for the safety of those of us with complicated genders.

The well-prepared traveler - Hello fellow flyers!

I have to fly out of Albuquerque, 90 minutes from my town. So, if I have a 6:00 a.m. flight, I take the shuttle the previous evening, stay at an inexpensive hotel which has a shuttle to the airport. This saves me cost of gas and parking (cost of shuttle and hotel costs less than if I drove myself.

From Albuquerque, I avoid travelling through Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver and instead usually go via Phoenix or Dallas-Ft. Worth. I pack a suitcase, and then empty the contents into cardboard boxes and ship them UPS to my U.S.A. destination. ... Yes, it costs $$$, but I don't have to wait in any lines, deal with lost bags or heavy carry-ons or deal with tiny bottles of cosmetics and the like in that 1 quart bag routine.

I pack several protein bars and almonds. Once through security I buy two bottles of water and/or juice ... just in case the plane gets stuck on the runway for hours at a time. Sometimes I toss in a deck of cards, crossword book, etc. just to keep me from getting frustrated waiting for the plane to take off. (If you meditate/pray, this is a great way to use the wait time.) On overseas flights I take a sleeping pill once on board so I get to my destination rested.

The deal, the company?' largest ever deal in Latin America, would be spread over four years. TCS would maintain, manage and provide support for hardware and software related applications for IMSS and its affiliates across systems that run medical insurance, pensions, birth certificates and other services.

TCS won the contract following a public bid process and an assessment based on technology and financial parameters over three other leading global and local technology companies, a company release said. Impressed by the level of technical education and skilled workforce in Latin America, Indian software companies have made a beeline to set up delivery centres in Latin America to service American as well as global clients.

N. Chandrasekaran, executive director, TCS, said: "exico is emerging as a key market for TCS in Latin America." Its recent deals in Latin Ameica include those with ABN Amro Bank in Brazil, Registro Civil in Chile and Banco Pichincha in Ecuador.

Like TCS and Infosys, even BPO major Genpact set up a new facility at Juarez in Mexico in September. Companies say that apart from skilled technical manpower, another reason for companies seeking to aggressively expand in Latin America was its proximity to North America. Pramod Bhasin, president & CEO, Genpact said: "This expansion is due to the positive response we?re seeing from our North American and global clients who want high-quality and cost-effective solutions."

The growing Latin American economy and the quality of manpower, coupled with rising wage costs here and growing client demands, are forcing Indian companies to set up bases in South America, said Apurva Shah, IT analyst, Prabhudas Leeladhar.

Juan Chavolla was initially reluctant to join the 401(k) retirement savings program offered by his employer.

An immigrant from Mexico, Chavolla said he feared the money he earned as a warehouse worker for building products distributor OrePac would be lost if he changed jobs. He also figured a savings program in which the employer contributes matching dollars sounded "too good to be true," he said.

"There are some that say it's better to have the money in my pocket than to have it in the program," he said.

OrePac hired Futuro Sólido, which specializes in translation services and workplace training for Spanish-speaking employees - to do a presentation on its benefits options. While the company offers many types of translation services, Futuro Sólido owner Melissa Burkhart is particularly interested in helping workers like Chavolla take advantage of the benefits that are available to them.

Chavolla, who had never saved money before, liked what he heard from Futuro Sólido and enrolled in the 401(k) plan. In two years, the 38-year-old had built up a $10,000 nest egg.

"I see my money growing," he said. "It's a good program for my future."

Among Spanish-speaking immigrants eligible for company-sponsored benefits, Chavolla remains in the minority.

Overcoming obstacles

About 56 percent of all wage and salary employees ages 21 to 64 had an employer or union-sponsored pension or retirement plan last year, according to a report released this month by the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington, D.C.

Overall, about 53 percent of full-time, full-year workers participate in such plans, but the Institute's analysis of 2007 U.S. Census data found non-native Hispanics were less likely to participate
Melissa Burkhart and her husband, Ferney Colorado, founded Futuro Sólido U.S.A. to help immigrants understand their benefits packages. (Post | Hyoung Chang)
than whites, blacks or non-immigrant Hispanics.

Matthew Gnabasik, managing director of Blue Prairie Group, a human resources and investment consulting firm in Chicago, said there is a "generally accepted truism" in the industry that in companies with large Spanish-speaking immigrant populations, participation in retirement savings plans is low.

"It's often said that there is a cultural element to that," he said.

Human resources directors, he said, repeatedly tell him that among Spanish-speaking immigrants, those who are working feel a greater responsibility to care for older family members than to invest in a retirement plan.

In addition, Gnabasik said, it is difficult to get lower-income workers to participate in a plan.

Burkhart is working to change that.

A former English, Spanish and social studies teacher in Denver Public Schools, Burkhart launched Futuro Sólido in 2001 with help from her Colombian-born husband Ferney Colorado, who is also her consultant.

Her mission is to help companies tear down the myths and cultural obstacles that keep Spanish-speaking employees from enjoying robust benefits and to help them perform better in the workplace.

"We address the common misconceptions that are prevalent in the Spanish-speaking community in such topics as employee benefits and safety so that after the translation, the employees actually change their behavior," Burkhart said.

"Our emphasis is not just on translating accurately, but getting the results the client wants, whether that's understanding and compliance of safety regulation so their workers' compensation claims stay reasonable ... or whether that's having people participate in their 401(k)."

The reasons Spanish-speaking immigrants don't take advantage of benefits can sound bizarre to those outside of the community, Burkhart acknowledges.

Some male Hispanic immigrants, for example, don't want to enroll in a life insurance plan because they don't want to leave their hard-earned cash for the "Sancho," - a term for the man their wives remarry when they die, Burkhart said.

"I explain to them you don't have to leave it to your wife," Burkhart said. "You can leave it to your children ... This is to protect the people that you're supporting."

Earning workers' trust

Meanwhile, others would rather hide their cash under the mattress than in a 401(k), she said.

"There is a lack of trust of banks because of volatility in their countries of origin," she said. "They're afraid if they can't see the money and can't count it themselves, that the bank will say, 'Oh sorry, it went away."'

And, health plans are sometimes seen as unnecessary because some immigrants will wait until they're seriously ill and just go to the emergency room, said Burkhart.

In a report released earlier this month in the health care journal Inquiry, researchers found that many Spanish-speaking Latinos are in low-wage jobs that don't offer health insurance plans.

For those whose companies offer a plan, the report, entitled, "Why do Latinos Have So Little Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance," found the cost of premiums to be a deterrent.

Len Nichols, director of the Health Policy Program at the Washington, D.C.-based New America Foundation and a co-author of the report, said a higher priority for them is to be able to send money home.

"In that sense, making sure you have as much cash now is at a premium in that community," he said.

Nichols said Burkhart appears to have a niche company; he knows of no other company that is targeting Spanish-speaking immigrants to get them enrolled in employer-sponsored benefits.

Burkhart said there are incentives for employers to get all employees, including Spanish-speaking immigrants, to take advantage of benefits. One is employee retention.

"They'll think twice before going to look for another job," she said. "They'll realize that they might not get this good a deal somewhere else, even if they're getting another dollar or so, they may not be getting as good a package."

And with health plans, high enrollment gives the company leverage to negotiate better rates and packages for all employees, Burkhart said.

Pick messenger wisely

But it's all in the message, Burkhart said.

She suggests that companies hire professional translators to explain benefits, rather than a computer program or bilingual employee - a big and common mistake.

"The guy they have to interpret might not even be participating in the plan," she said. "There is all this technical terminology like 'stocks,' and 'bonds' and 'deductibles' and 'inpatient services' and this guy doesn't know what that means."

With benefit plans, employees are usually more open to enrolling once they understand how they work, Burkhart said.

"For 401(k) plans, when they see examples of what you can have for the price of a cup of coffee every day at retirement - $250,000 or $350,000 - it very often clicks," she said.

Carlos Gonzalez, a Spanish-speaking immigrant at OrePac, said he recommends the 401(k) plan to his co-workers.

"I've told them if they have that option to take it because if they have that money in their pocket, they're not going to save it," he said.

"The way I see it, when I'm on the age to pull it out, I don't know if I'm going to be able to work, if Social Security is going to exist. I have that money there in the long run."

In an email Paul sent contributors, the straight-laced doctor sounded more like a child of the '60s than any of the Democratic candidates:

I have to admit being floored by the $4.2 million dollars you raised yesterday for this campaign. And unlike the fatcat operations of the opposition, the average contribution from our 36,672 donors was $103

Some of the mainstream media have sat up and taken notice. Others have pooh-poohed our record online fundraising. But the day is coming -- far faster than they know -- when they will not be able to ignore our freedom revolution.

I like Paul, in spite of the fact that I believe in most of the government programs he'd like to see abolished. Liberals can find common cause with Paul on issues like opposition to the Patriot Act, an end to the war in Iraq and preservation of constitutional liberties. (On Social Security, Medicare and the Department of Education not so much.) Paul's one of the most ideologically consistent presidential candidates, voting his beliefs reliably during 29 years in politics, and he's a throwback to the days when Republicans had an uneasy relationship with government. Today's borrow-and-spend Republicans are just as likely to break the bank as the tax-and-spend Democrats of old, but they spend the money on military adventures and corporate welfare instead of social programs, and they lay the bill on our grandkids and great-grandkids.

The chord Paul's striking with disenchanted Americans is impressive, even as they drive right-wing sites like RedState to hysteria with their online activism. The stuff that disciples of Paul are creating on their own has been the most effective campaigning I've seen thus far, like the iconic Ron Paul Revolution banner:

Ron Paul Revolution banner

This astounding fund-raising achievement should compel the media to take Paul more seriously, even though he's yet to show enough polling success to be a realistic threat to win the nomination. He's raising money at a faster clip than the other Republican candidates and can carry his effort all the way to Election Day as a third-party candidate, which is where he ran in 1988 as the Libertarian nominee.

The latest example of this tendency is the virulent opposition from anti-immigration activists to a proposal by New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who wants to eliminate the requirement for driver's license applicants in that state to have a Social Security card.

To be sure, those of us whose principal concern is security must concede that the activists have a point. The ease with which people can illegally enter this country is a loophole terrorists can exploit to pull off another 9/11. And, so, whatever one's view of whether illegal immigration is a net economic benefit or burden (put me in the "benefit" camp), it is imperative that we finally get serious about policing our borders.

Ways around rules

As far as Social Security cards are concerned, illegal immigrants in New York will either apply for a license with fraudulent ones, or they will drive without a license. If, God forbid, some of those illegal immigrants turn out to be terrorists, we will be unable to identify them.

Those who supplied documentation will likely remain unknown because the information they submitted will be bogus. And those who did not bother to apply will remain completely in the shadows.

Because of the risk of being caught and deported, the number in the latter category is likelier to be far higher than in that in the former.

One of the many lessons of 9/11 is that the more information we have on terrorists, the better. Spitzer's plan would result in our gaining more information because it would encourage illegal immigrants to apply for driver's licenses, and to do so in their own names with bona fide documentation.

Useful personal data

Further, the documentation required would be more useful for security than Social Security numbers. Illegal immigrants would have to submit six kinds of identification, including a foreign passport with photo identification that would be verified by trained staff and state-of-the-art scanning machines. Photo comparison technology would be used to ensure that applicants could not get multiple licenses. Not incidentally, the license available to illegal aliens could not be used to board a plane or cross a border.

Notably, the 9/11 Commission did not recommend that driver's licenses be issued only to people who could prove that they were legally in the USA. Four of the five states that issued licenses to 9/11 hijackers had "immigration status" requirements at the time, and those hijackers were able to prove that they were here legally.

States' Department of Motor Vehicle databases, which contain names, addresses, photographs and driving records, proved invaluable in identifying who the hijackers were and connecting that information to other data that led to a more complete profile of them. Even better than identifying terrorists after the fact, such comprehensive information can even help to prevent attacks.

In short, there is a right way and a wrong way to crack down on illegal immigration. The right way is to be guided by reason rather than emotion. It might make activists feel good to deny driver's licenses to those here illegally. But such a policy will do little, if anything, to get unsafe illegal immigrant drivers off the streets. And, it might make the already difficult job of identifying terrorists even harder.