Men Still at Work: Professionals Over Sixty and on the Job by Elizabeth F. Fideler Page A

“enjoying the work,” more than three-quarters cited “work-life fit,” nearly two-thirds said “feeling connected to the organization,” and more than half said “having an opportunity to make a difference.” (My respondents’ reasons are discussed at length in chapter 7.)
    The BLS highlights several reasons for the significant increases in labor force participation rates among older Americans:
    ■ Longer and healthier life spans are enabling additional years of earned income.
    ■ Availability of employer-based health insurance is keeping people in the labor force.
    ■ Hikes in eligibility for collecting Social Security benefits are encouraging delayed retirement and rewarding older workers for each additional year of employment. 7
    ■ The shift from defined benefit to defined contribution pension plans (i.e., from employer “pay out” to employee “pay in”) means benefits accrue with additional years of work.
    ■ The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) has eliminated most mandatory retirement ages.
    ■ Labor market participation rates are higher among better educated citizens.
    ■ Negative consequences of the financial crisis induce older workers to remain in the labor market. 8
    For an older adult nearing retirement age, such as a baby boomer, those negative consequences of the financial crisis might include: wage or salary stagnation, the loss of value in his home (or loss of the home through foreclosure), and diminished investments and savings, coupled with responsibility for a growing share of health-care costs. Although economic factors loom large, they are not the only drivers of working in the later years. Another array of influences on the retirement decision partially overlaps the previously referenced BLS list and adds the following: incentives, such as employers offering phased retirement options or reduced hours; status of physical and cognitive health (one’s own and one’s family’s); availability of disability and unemployment insurance programs; and individual preference for leisure versusemployment. 9
    An increasing number of even younger boomers have lost confidence in their ability to retire with sufficient financial security, and they, too, are opting to delay retirement. A 2012 Conference Board survey of 15,000 individuals found nearly two-thirds of Americans between the ages of forty-five and sixty saying they plan to delay retirement, and this was more than 20 percent higher than the response to the same survey item in 2010. 10 Similarly, MetLife’s 2012 study of boomer attitudes regarding retirement found them “wearily eyeing working beyond the age of sixty-five.” 11 (Despite their professed intention to delay retirement, it is entirely possible for boomers to change their mind when decision time arrives, as Sloan Center economist Kevin Cahill and other researchers point out.) 12
    A 2012 retirement readiness survey by the Aegon Group of nine thousand current workers in the United States, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom found only 15 percent of respondents were confident that they are “on course to achieve the retirement income they need.” Sixty percent expect to keep working in some manner beyond their retirement age. They did not want a traditional “retirement cliff” experience (i.e., going straight from working life into full retirement), a retirement cliff apparently having as little appeal as a “fiscal cliff.” Across all nine countries participating in the Aegon survey, some form of phased retirement was preferred, such as changing to part-time status for a little while or changing to part-time status and continuing to work longer, or starting one’s own business. Aegon sees phased retirement becoming the norm because people are living longer yet are less prepared for retirement financially. 13
    Retirement researchers Alicia Munnell and Steven Sass address the economic arguments for