We are often told that workers who stay employed well into retirement age are often the result of poor retirement planning. We also hear a lot about the high costs and lower productivity of older workers. Indeed, some of the reasons people work well into retirement age could be for necessity and not choice. When it comes to women working later into their retirement years, new research aims to explain why older women are increasingly staying in the workforce well beyond the stage that their mothers and grandmothers retired.
A recent Bloomberg article highlighting a Harvard University study of gender economics, suggests that women are staying in the workforce longer for several reasons, mostly because of choice. Almost half of women working in their late 60s are in full-time, year-round jobs, up from about 30% 20 years ago, Harvard University economics professors Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz found in new research.
Longevity in the workplace is also defined by job experience, choice of occupation, job satisfaction and in many cases education level. Higher education is a major factor in working later in life. The boom of women entering the workforce in the 70’s and 80’s means that there are some very seasoned women out there in the workplace, many more than in past generations. This, according to Goldin may be explained by notion that women (like men) have their occupation as part of their personal identity, and are eager to continue working.
Armed with experience, maturity and industry connections, older female workers can make a significant contribution to a company.
However, the Bloomberg article does cite some red flags that plan sponsors should not lose sight of; specifically, that working later into retirement years can often suggest some hardship. For starters, women live longer than men on average and the majority of married women are younger than their spouses (but in generally retire at the same time). This suggests that a woman will have to save more money, more quickly for a longer retirement.
The Harvard study concludes that there is secular trend in working later into one’s lifetime as mental and physical health has improved over the decades. Women are in the heart of this new trend. And contrary to some popular beliefs, older workers in the workplace may be healthy for the company and the overall economy.
