Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974

Employee Retirement Income Security Act

Long title	An Act to provide for pension reform.
Acronyms (colloquial)	ERISA
Nicknames	Employee Benefit Security Act
Enacted by	the 93rd United States Congress
Effective	September 2, 1974
Citations
Public law	93-406
Statutes at Large	88 Stat. 829
Codification
Acts amended	Employees' Pension Security Act
Titles amended	29 U.S.C.: Labor
U.S.C. sections created	29 U.S.C. ch. 18 § 1001 et seq.
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 2 by John Herman Dent (D-PA) on January 3, 1973 Committee consideration by House Education and Labor Passed the House on February 28, 1974 (376-4) Passed the Senate on March 4, 1974 (passed, provisions of H.R. 4200 substituted) Reported by the joint conference committee on August 12, 1974; agreed to by the House on August 20, 1974 (407-2) and by the Senate on August 22, 1974 (85-0) Signed into law by President Gerald Ford on September 2, 1974
United States Supreme Court cases
List Nachman Corp. v. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, 446 U.S. 359 (1980) Alessi v. Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc., 451 U.S. 504 (1981) Franchise Tax Bd. of Cal. v. Construction Laborers Vacation Trust for Southern Cal., 463 U.S. 1 (1983) Shaw v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., 463 U.S. 85 (1983) Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Massachusetts, 471 U.S. 724 (1985) Pilot Life Ins. Co. v. Dedeaux, 481 U.S. 41 (1987) Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Taylor, 481 U.S. 58 (1987) Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. v. Bruch, 489 U.S. 101 (1989) Mead Corp. v. Tilley, 490 U.S. 714 (1989) Ingersoll-Rand Co. v. McClendon, 498 U.S. 133 (1990) Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. v. Darden, 503 U.S. 318 (1992) Mertens v. Hewitt Associates, 508 U.S. 248 (1993) John Hancock Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Harris Trust and Sav. Bank, 510 U.S. 86 (1993) Lockheed Corp. v. Spink, 517 U.S. 882 (1996) California Div. of Labor Standards Enforcement v. Dillingham Constr., NA, Inc., 519 U.S. 316 (1997) Inter-Modal Rail Employees Assn. v. Atchison, T. & SFR Co., 520 U.S. 510 (1997) De Buono v. NYSA-ILA Medical and Clinical Services Fund, 520 U.S. 806 (1997) Boggs v. Boggs, 520 U.S. 833 (1997) Hughes Aircraft Co. v. Jacobson, 525 U.S. 432 (1999) Pegram v. Herdrich, 530 U.S. 211 (2000) Egelhoff v. Egelhoff, 532 U.S. 141 (2001) Great-West Life & Annuity Ins. Co. v. Knudson, 534 U.S. 204 (2002) Rush Prudential HMO, Inc. v. Moran, 536 U.S. 355 (2002) Kentucky Assn. of Health Plans, Inc. v. Miller, 538 U.S. 329 (2003) Black & Decker Disability Plan v. Nord, 538 U.S. 822 (2003) Raymond B. Yates, MD, PC Profit Sharing Plan v. Hendon, 541 U.S. 1 (2004) Central Laborers' Pension Fund v. Heinz, 541 U.S. 739 (2004) Aetna Health Inc. v. Davila, 542 U.S. 200 (2004) Howard Delivery Service, Inc. v. Zurich American Ins. Co., 547 U.S. 651 (2006) Sereboff v. Mid Atlantic Medical Services, Inc., 547 U.S. 356 (2006) Beck v. Pace Intern. Union, 551 U.S. 96 (2007) LaRue v. DeWolff, Boberg & Associates, Inc., 552 U.S. 248 (2008) Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Glenn, 554 U.S. 105 (2008) Kennedy v. Plan Administrator for DuPont Sav. and Investment Plan, 555 U.S. 285 (2009) Conkright v. Frommert, 559 U.S. 506 (2010) Hardt v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Co., 560 U.S. 242 (2010) CIGNA Corp. v. Amara, 563 U.S. 421 (2011) US Airways, Inc. v. McCutchen, 569 U.S. 88 (2013) Heimeshoff v. Hartford Life & Accident Ins. Co., 571 U.S. 99 (2013) Fifth Third Bancorp v. Dudenhoeffer, 573 U.S. 409 (2014) M&G Polymers USA, LLC v. Tackett, 574 U.S. 427 (2015) Tibble v. Edison International, No. 13-550, 575 U.S. ___ (2015) Montanile v. Board of Trustees of Nat. Elevator Industry Health Benefit Plan, No. 14-723, 577 U.S. ___ (2016) Amgen Inc. v. Harris, No. 15-278, 577 U.S. ___ (2016) Gobeille v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., No. 14-181, 577 U.S. ___ (2016) Advocate Health Care Network v. Stapleton, No. 16-74, 581 U.S. ___ (2017) CNH Industrial N. V. v. Reese, No. 17-515, 583 U.S. ___ (2018) Retirement Plans Comm. of IBM v. Jander, No. 18-1165, 589 U.S. ___ (2020) Intel Corp. Investment Policy Committee v. Sulyma, No. 18-1116, 589 U.S. ___ (2020) Thole v. U. S. Bank N. A., No. 17-1712, 590 U.S. ___ (2020) Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Assn., No. 18-540, 592 U.S. ___ (2020) Hughes v. Northwestern University, No. 19-1401, 595 U.S. ___ (2022) Cunningham v. Cornell University, No. 23-1007, 604 U.S. ___ (2025)

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) (Pub. L. 93–406, 88 Stat. 829, enacted September 2, 1974, codified in part at 29 U.S.C. ch. 18) is a U.S. federal tax and labor law that establishes minimum standards for pension plans in private industry. It contains rules on the federal income tax effects of transactions associated with employee benefit plans. ERISA was enacted to protect the interests of employee benefit plan participants and their beneficiaries by:

• Requiring the disclosure of financial and other information concerning the plan to beneficiaries;
• Establishing standards of conduct for plan fiduciaries;
• Providing for appropriate remedies and access to the federal courts.

ERISA is sometimes used to refer to the full body of laws that regulate employee benefit plans, which are mainly in the Internal Revenue Code and ERISA itself.

Responsibility for interpretation and enforcement of ERISA is divided among the Department of Labor, the Department of the Treasury (particularly the Internal Revenue Service), and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.