In April 2023, Betty Glover, a 91-year-old grocery store employee in Oregon, was finally able to retire after a GoFundMe campaign. raised $82,000 for her. After seven decades in the workforce, Glover was unable to save enough to retire and cover basic expenses like food and medicine.
“I hate the idea of not working,” Glover told a local. TV station. But she wanted to spend time with her two children, four grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.
Glover's wasn't the only GoFundMe retirement. Earlier that year, an 82-year-old Walmart cashier marionette puppet retired, thanks to a GoFundMe campaign.
These outpourings of generosity are not feel-good stories; reveal the serious failure of the United States national retirement system. Welcome to retirement the American way, where retirement is work.
Most Americans don't have enough money to retire. Forty-four percent of households with members between 55 and 64 years old I have no savings at all. The average retirement account balance is about $100,000; most middle class people need $600,000. It is no surprise that in the United States there are around 39 million workers aged 55 and older. Workers aged 75 or older are the fastest growing age segment of the workforce.
While some older workers make a lot of money, retire and enjoy cushy jobs (senators, corporate executives, lawyers), millions are trapped in low-paying jobs, physically demanding and dangerous jobs in which they have little or no voice or power.
Older workers are closing the wage gap with their younger counterparts, not because employers suddenly value age and experience more than they did in the 1980s, but because older workers are increasing their hours to meet their needs. financial needs, as highlighted by Pew Research.
When retirement security declines, so does the bargaining position of older workers to demand good wages and conditions. Employers know that more seniors must continue working, even with less favorable wages, hours and conditions. My research shows that at least two-thirds of workers age 62 and older work because they don't have enough money to retire.
Workers over 55 years of age are They are disproportionately represented in lower-paying and physically demanding jobs.: 31% of personal care and home care workers and 34% of custodians are over 55 years old, while older workers make up 23% of the total workforce.
This gloomy outlook is on its way to getting worse. Most of the fastest-growing jobs in the U.S. economy, such as health care and software engineering, are unlikely to benefit older workers. (The software industry has a average age 38 yearswhile the average age of the overall workforce is 42.) Many of the jobs in the healthcare sector are low-paying, physically exhausting jobs that may not be suitable for most people in their 60s and 70s. .
Paradoxically, even when many older people need To continue working to make ends meet, most people between the ages of 62 and 70 are unable to work for various reasons and will retire without adequate income or savings. As stated by the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis reported in 2019: “Between 2010 and 2018, 55.3 percent of workers ages 55 and older in the bottom half of the income distribution were forced to leave the workforce due to layoffs, plant closings, age discrimination, poor health and family concerns. “
And yet the “work more” mantra persists; The Economist magazine ran a headline last month that trumpet: “Why you should never retire.” That can have benefits for the economy when the labor market is tight, but the nation should not rely on people working longer to compensate for inadequate retirement income security. This only exacerbates inequalities in wealth, health, well-being and retirement time.
Working yourself to the bone is not a civilized plan for a civilized society. We desperately need a Gray new deal that improves jobs for older workers while restoring and boosting pensions and retirement security. Federal and state incentives should promote better-paying, age-appropriate jobs. Better job training and stronger unions would also make a difference.
An Older Workers Office in the Department of Labor could help direct and support those efforts. Strengthening pensions would help ensure that older workers get better pay and conditions and work by choice rather than necessity. We need subsidized guaranteed retirement accounts and pre-funded pensions, and an expanded Social Security system.
Some may worry about the price of a different approach, but the status quo is unacceptable and unsustainable in both human and economic terms. A Gray New Deal would save money and lives.
Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economics at the New School for Social Research, is the author of the following article “Work, retire, repeat: the uncertainty of retirement in the new economy.”
