The Financial Accounting Standards Board approved an updated accounting standard, which is meant to provide more information regarding an employer's financial responsibilities to multiemployer pension plans.

Employers typically use multiemployer pension plans to offer benefits to union employees who work for multiple employers during their career. This allows them to accrue benefits in a single pension plan for their retirement.

"Historically, very limited information about these plans has been disclosed, even though they may represent significant potential obligations for many large, unionized industries, such as trucking, supermarket chains and construction firms," says FASB Chairman Leslie F. Seidman. "The enhanced disclosures will ensure that shareholders in companies that participate in these plans, workers who depend on them for their retirement benefits as well as lenders and others, will have more information regarding the employers' pension commitments and the financial health of the plans."