Older workers: "Facing economic insecurity" or "doing just fine"?

The congressional Joint Economic Committee on Wednesday was given diametrically opposed views of the state of the older American workforce.

Progressives contended that older Americans are continuing to work because they have to keep a job for economic reasons and that they face unique challenges ranging from physical demands to discrimination.

Conservatives, on the other hand, told the committee that older Americans continue to work because they want to and that they are rewarded for that effort.

Committee Chairman Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., said that older Americans have long faced unique challenges that were exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

“Decades of diminished bargaining power, stagnant wage growth, diminishing returns from additional years of working, and increasingly strenuous and dangerous jobs have contributed to widespread economic insecurity among older workers and constricted broad-based economic growth,” he said.

Beyer added that many older workers have been forced out of jobs to live on an insufficient retirement income.

Joint Economic Committee ranking Republican Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, disagreed with Beyer. “Older Americans are doing better than they ever have before,” he said, adding that older people continue to work because they find the work rewarding.

He said that older people are hurt by government programs that are “cooked up in Washington and delivered half-baked.”

Witnesses did not provide much more clarity to the issues.

“While a minority of older workers enjoy fulfilling jobs, most work because they have little retirement savings and face lowering wages, increasing job intensity, and being pushed out of the labor force entirely,” Teresa Ghilarducci, Bernard Schwartz professor of economics and policy analysis, at The New School for Social Research in New York told the panel.

She said that while a minority of older workers have fulfilling jobs, many more work because they have little retirement savings, adding that they “face lowering wages, increasing job intensity, and being pushed out of the labor force entirely.”

She called on Congress to establish an Older Workers Bureau to focus on the issues facing those employees. She also said that the U.S. should establish a universal pension system.

“Older workers with low pay often claim Social Security early, which lowers their lifetime Social Security benefits,” she said.

Monique Morrissey an economist at the Economic Policy Institute agreed that an Older Workers Bureau at the Department of Labor would be able to address crucial issues facing older Americans.

She also said that work-sharing arrangements in which employers reduce hours rather than lay off workers have helped in other nations.

Andrew Biggs, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute said that older workers are doing just fine.

“The data are now undeniable: if the conditions are right, Americans can and will extend their work lives, and they have been rewarded for doing so,” he told the committee.

He said that extended work lives may be an even more powerful way to increase retirement security. He added that Americans could have retired sooner and enjoyed decent incomes. Instead, they have worked longer and now enjoy record incomes.