Workers Over 65 Term Paper

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Workers Over 65

Today, many workers who hit retirement age are opting to keep working. Many factors contribute to this fact: economics, changes in retirement age, continuing need for personal achievement, and employers' need and desire to keep older workers on the job. In today's economy, many workers simply cannot afford to retire (Hawthorne, 2003). At the same time, the age for eligibility for Social Security retirement benefits will eventually climb from 62 to 67 with a substantial reduction in benefits for early retirees. This means that many older Americans will spend at least two to five years longer in the workforce or have to change their lifestyle. In addition, many older people simply want to keep working. The world faces a future in which a whole generation is healthy, wealthy and bored. Many will choose to keep working or will go back to work.

The number of workers over 65 rose 22% from 1990 to 2000, to 4.2 million. That figure will jump an additional 30% by 2010, to 5.4 million, the Labor Department says (Block, 2002). For this reason, it is important that employers recognize the value of older workers (Hawthorne, 2003). According to Employment and the Older Worker, an Administration on Aging fact sheet, "the myth of failing competence in older persons is based on an anachronistic picture of the world of work based on industrial and other physically demanding labor. With technology creating a greater emphasis on brain-work over 'brawn-work,' employers are tapping into minds which do not necessarily fail with age. The high-tech tools of today's workforce are extremely conducive to maintaining an older, more experienced and knowledgeable workforce. Further, today's 'senior' population represents a group more familiar and comfortable with these tools than their precursors."

Currently, statistics show that more than 43 per cent of the adult population is over 50. Therefore, employers have a millions-strong resource of experienced and well-trained workers with a learned understanding of modern business. Older workers are often more experienced at handling people, tend to be more loyal to an employer, less likely to take unannounced days off and are less likely to be distracted by partners, college or maternity.

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However, despite the benefits older workers bring to companies, a survey of personnel managers demonstrates that that nearly three quarters of companies have a mandatory retirement age -- some as low as 60 -- with many forcing workers to retire at 65 (Armitage-Johnstone). Many also refuse to hire new staff from their mid-50s. According to the federal government, age-discrimination complaints filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are up more than 24% over the past two years (Cohen, 2000). However, according to Simon Devitt, director of Fish4jobs, the current focus on youth recruitment is misguided and that with fewer under 35s in the workplace, it is impractical for employers to gear their recruitment policy solely toward the young (Armitage-Johnstone, 2002).

Many companies have recruitment policies that discriminate against older workers, even though statistics show that the older generation will be increasingly integral to the workforce of the future (Armitage-Johnstone). According to Beverly Goldberg, author of Age Works: What Corporate America Must Do To Survive the Graying of the Workforce, many companies hold misconceptions about older workers (Morris, 2000). One such myth is that older workers cannot learn new things. However, Goldberg argues that this is completely untrue, saying that the fastest-growing group of Internet users in this country is people over 50.

Another common misconception is that older workers are absent or ill more often than younger workers. This is also untrue, as older workers have proven themselves to be just as, if not more, mobile and reliable than young ones. According to Greenberg (Morris, 2000): "People confuse the fact that older workers may have more chronic conditions, such as high blood pressure, with the whole idea of healthiness. Such conditions are treatable by a pill once a day and do not affect attendance. Older workers tend not to be as likely to stay out late and then call in….....

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