Lucent Technologies Inc., Murray Hill, N.J., is setting up a cash...

Lucent Technologies Inc., Murray Hill, N.J., is setting up a cash balance plan for all of its non-union U.S. employees hired after Jan. 1. Lucent is adopting a plain vanilla cash balance plan and will credit employees’ accounts with an undisclosed guaranteed fixed interest rate. Employee accounts also will be credited with between 3% and 10% of pay; the percentage gets higher as workers get older. The plan, which starts Jan. 1, 2000, will cover thousands of U.S. workers at the companies Lucent has acquired since October 1996. None of the acquired companies had traditional pension plans.