Americans Working Into Their 90’s
For the first time in history, four generations are working together
There’s a growing number of people for whom retirement age has lost its meaning. They’re staying on the job longer and longer past that point – some for personal satisfaction, others out of necessity. Some are even working away into their 90s and beyond: In Maryland, Grace Wiles, 97, works about 25 hours per week at a shoe repair store. In Nebraska, 98-year-old Sally Gordon is the legislature’s assistant sergeant at arms. They’re all younger than Waldo McBurney, a 104-year-old beekeeper from Kansas who was recently declared America’s oldest worker.
The number of older workers is likely to continue to rise as Americans live longer and are unable to make ends meet on Social Security and savings in 401(k) plans. About 6.4% of Americans 75 or older, or slightly more than 1 million, were working last year. That’s up from 4.7%, or 634,000, a decade earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. With the first wave of Baby Boomers reaching the traditional retirement age, companies are start to think about ways to retain and recruit older workers, through flexible scheduling, for example. This will help them fill positions as the labor pool shrinks.
