This is particularly true in Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay, where retirement benefits are received by 20%-30% of households. The exceptions include Brazil, where retirement benefits are somewhat regressive in absolute terms despite the high level of coverage, and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Panama and Paraguay, where the benefits are somewhat progressive but coverage is low. From this perspective, consideration of the coverage of these transfers by primary per capita income decile shows that they are progressive, that is, the coverage is greater among the poorest groups. This seems to contradict the widespread notion that social security systems are regressive. It must be borne in mind, however, that many of them are based on past employment, and also that their extent and amount are subject to a type of occupational stratification which at one time gave rise to a regressive primary-income structure.