With people living longer, pension systems have come under heavy pressure. Governments, particularly in Europe, have stopped offering generous state pensions and are shifting responsibility to individuals and employers.

Many people are working longer or taking up second careers after they retire to make ends meet in retirement. With all of that going on, the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, in collaboration with AEGON, released "The Changing Face of Retirement – The Workplace Perspective," which assesses the role of employers, workplace retirement benefits, and workers in the U.S. and eight European countries.

The report, which surveyed 9,000 people in nine countries,  found that employees increasingly are relying on company pension plans to fill the gap left by the governments no longer offering generous state pensions. Of those employees surveyed, two-thirds believe such benefits should be a basic part of any worker's pay and conditions.