Post by cjm on Oct 17, 2014 19:47:46 GMT
www.huffingtonpost.com/teresa-ghilarducci/the-solution-to-the-retir_b_6004962.html
We recently disagreed with Andrew Biggs and Sylvester Schieber when they said the retirement crisis is not real. They responded with data showing that people over the age of 65 maintain their standard of living not through adequate retirement savings, but work.
Here's the rub - work is not retirement. To the contrary, when people have to work in old age due to inadequate retirement savings, that's a retirement crisis.
The Urban Institute and Social Security Administration (SSA) predict that poverty rates among the middle class elderly will be slightly lower than their parents and grandparents. Biggs and Schieber are right about that - but only if older Americans double their work effort.
Working in old age is not only a violation of this country's historical social contract with workers - that after a lifetime of work, older Americans should have the choice to leave an increasingly unfriendly workplace without fear of poverty. It is also ineffective. At The Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), our research has revealed the reality behind the "work longer" solution to the retirement crisis. The shocking fact is that older workers between ages 62 and 65 have seen their job quality eroded by increasingly more physically and mentally demanding jobs. This is also consistent with a gradual decline in older workers' bargaining power, as evidenced by falling pay for older workers and increasing long-term unemployment rates.
We recently disagreed with Andrew Biggs and Sylvester Schieber when they said the retirement crisis is not real. They responded with data showing that people over the age of 65 maintain their standard of living not through adequate retirement savings, but work.
Here's the rub - work is not retirement. To the contrary, when people have to work in old age due to inadequate retirement savings, that's a retirement crisis.
The Urban Institute and Social Security Administration (SSA) predict that poverty rates among the middle class elderly will be slightly lower than their parents and grandparents. Biggs and Schieber are right about that - but only if older Americans double their work effort.
Working in old age is not only a violation of this country's historical social contract with workers - that after a lifetime of work, older Americans should have the choice to leave an increasingly unfriendly workplace without fear of poverty. It is also ineffective. At The Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), our research has revealed the reality behind the "work longer" solution to the retirement crisis. The shocking fact is that older workers between ages 62 and 65 have seen their job quality eroded by increasingly more physically and mentally demanding jobs. This is also consistent with a gradual decline in older workers' bargaining power, as evidenced by falling pay for older workers and increasing long-term unemployment rates.