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

continuing to work past the traditional retirement age, asserting that “the economic dynamics currently in play . . . are unlikely to provide today’s workers with economic security in their old age.” With Social Security’s retirement age for collecting full benefits moving from sixty-five to sixty-seven, higher health-care costs, rising tax rates, and weak-to-nonexistent retirement savings, they advise older workers who are healthy and willing to stay in the labor force, add to 401(k) accumulations, decrease the projected years in retirement, and leave more income for later years. 14 New York Times economic reporter Eduardo Porter also makes the case for delaying retirement for at least a few years. Doing so would not only increase one’s income in retirement—annual Social Security benefits would increase along with each additional year in the workforce—the income taxes paid would also augment and take some strain off the government’s social insurance programs. Porter points out that lower-wage workers would have the most to gain from additional years of work (although it has been shown that low-wage earners tend to exit the labor force earlier than higher-wage workers). Continued participation in the workforce would also help to offset slow growth in the labor supply, which the Congressional Budget Office expects to contract even more in the coming decade. 15
    To be sure, the United States is not alone when it comes to a shrinking supply of younger workers. With longevity increasing apace in Japan, a government report warns the country “to harness the skills of its graying workers,” for “the nation’s economic prospects depend on making them productive.” 16 Promoting employment of mature workers is also a priority for European Union member countries. As Netherlands professor Annet de Lange reports, in the twenty-seven countries in the European Union as a whole, the rate of participation in the labor force for the population age fifty-five to sixty-four was 47.4 percent in 2011. Rates of participation by that age group vary widely from country to country in Europe. At one end of the spectrum is Sweden’s high rate of 72.3 percent, with Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom close behind, and at the other is Belgium’s rate of 38.7 percent the same year. 17
    In Germany, one of the European countries experiencing marked population declines, the government is inducing older workers to postpone retirement by raising the retirement age gradually from sixty-five to sixty-seven, and companies are offering flexible hours and redesigning assembly lines to minimize bending and lifting. 18 Luxembourg’s National Employment Administration is considering a national policy to extend the careers of older persons—both by keeping them employed and by facilitating “reinsertion” (or reentry) into the workforce—through personnel training and guidance geared to job market requirements and favorable working conditions. The European Social Fund and the Ministry of Labour in Luxembourg are supporting the development of a “scorecard” intended to change the image of workers age fifty and older so companies won’t be so quick to lay them off when they turn fifty-five. 19 In Australia, too, the government is urging employment of “mature age” workers and encouraging them to prolong their work lives by raising the eligibility age for the Age Pension and promoting tax-based incentives for employers and employees to contribute to retirement funds. 20
    Although hiring in this country has picked up somewhat—nearly every industry except state government added jobs—most of the gains are coming via low-wage and part-time jobs. 21 The economy is still not generating enough jobs to replace what was lost in the Great Recession. 22 Some states, such as Nevada, California, Michigan, North Carolina, and Florida, have been especially hard hit by unemployment. Although the majority of jobs lost in the downturn