Why the future of work will be shaped by older workers | World Economic Forum - 1 views
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In the 30-year span from 1994 to 2024, workers aged 55 and older will go from being the smallest segment of the US working population to the largest
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The aging of the workforce is in part driven by employees who want to keep working—or at least, to keep earning—well into their 70s and even 80s.
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Increased life expectancy across the industrialized world means that more people have more years of healthy life than ever before. Women who deferred careers while raising children may only be hitting their professional stride in their later 50s; men and women who spent decades in engaging roles may be reluctant to abandon the social and intellectual stimulation of work for decades of leisure time.
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Meanwhile, the corporate shift from defined-benefit retirement plans, which guaranteed a steady income, to defined-contribution plans, which place the onus of saving on workers, has left many older people financially unable to quit work without a substantial drop in their standard of living.
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“Keeping older people working means they remain taxpayers. With their increased financial resources and confidence and ongoing engagement, they are likely to continue to consume,” Irving said. “The more people are actively engaged in the economy, the more likely the economy is to grow. That’s good for everyone.”
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PWC subsequently rolled out a flexibility policy that allowed workers of any age to adjust their schedules to fit with personal priorities.
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That’s important because working longer will be a financial necessity for many people over the coming decades. London Business School professors Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott, who co-authored The 100-Year-Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity, have calculated that a worker who lives to be 100—as most children born by the end of this century will—who saves roughly 10% of her income and wants to retire on 50% of her final salary will need to work into her 80s.
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replacing the current standard of intense, full-time careers that end abruptly in a worker’s mid-60s, with longer arcs that include more frequent breaks.
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“People are working full-time at the same time they’re raising children. You never get a break. You never get to step out. You never get to refresh . . . There is no real reason why we need to work this way.”
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One of the benefits that companies have been slowest to roll out is one that most older people want: phased retirement.
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Only 19% of US companies offered some form of phased retirement to workers in 2017, according to the Society of Human Resource Management, and less than a third of those companies offered the option through formal programs. More commonly, it’s a perk given only to the highest performers. But addressing employees’ requests this way, on a case-by-case basis, opens the door to charges of age discrimination and can lead to valuable employees leaving altogether.
