The employee retirement income security act of 1974 (erisa), a federal statute, delineates minimum standards for the administration of private industry's pension plans and establishes the impact that … 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. The employee retirement income security act of 1974 (erisa) is a federal law that sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established retirement and health plans in private industry to provide …