Author: Jacquelyn B. James, Boston College Center for Work & Family and Lynch School of Education, Boston College
Date: March 5, 2007
Introduction
Not too long ago, aging and work as a phrase might have been seen as a contradiction in terms, and work and family as a focus of research among gerontologists equally incongruous. Today, however, we have a new reality. Life expectancy has increased dramatically. Retirement income is not as predictable as it once was; and families, sometimes three or four generations deep, are confronted with the need to work while bearing caregiving responsibilities for the young and the old. In this context, a new life stage seems to have emerged during which new opportunities for personal fulfillment may be available (Laslett, 1996). The purposes of this entry are to briefly outline the evolution of aging and work as an important area of focus for researchers interested in work and family issues, summarize what we know so far about aging and work in the family context, shed light on the emergence of a new developmental stage of life, and suggest new lines of research that are urgently needed.
The New Reality
Life expectancy has increased dramatically over the last 100 years mostly because of decreased infant mortality- increasing from 47 years in 1900 to approximately 76 today, even longer for women (Rowe & Kahn, 1999). More importantly, the quality of life in old age has improved. People are taking better care of themselves and medical advances have made better health possible (Rowe & Kahn, 1999; Grafova, McGonagle, & Stafford, 2007). Not only are people living longer but they are less infirm than previous generations, and the number of people over 65 is increasing by the year. This phenomenon has been referred to as the "longevity revolution," (Moen & Altobelli, 2007).
We must take care, however, not to overstate the number of added years. Life expectancy and life left to live at age 65 are two different things. The idea that people who reach 65 today have 25, 30, or even more years to live has been widely cited (Dytchtwald, Morison, & Erickson, 2006; Freedman, 1999; Sadler, 2000, VanLier, 2005). These numbers appear to be exaggerated. According to the National Vital Statistics Reports (2002), in 1900-02, men who lived to age 65 could be expected to live an average of 11.5 years (women, 12.2). Today those numbers are 15.1 years and 19 years respectively. This represents a statistically significant increase in the number of years older adults can expect to live if they make it to age 65 (a trend that may be reversed by rising obesity rates among the elderly, Mann, 2005; Grafova, et al., 2007), but the increase that we see is considerably less than 30 years.
With that caveat, people are living longer; there are proportionately more elderly in the population, and their sources of retirement income are changing. People today are more insecure about their retirement income than they were just 5 years ago (Reynolds, Ridley, & Van Horn, 2005). According to Munnell and Soto (2005) the results of a study of a nationally representative sample show that most of those who retire with private pensions today will have income adequacy in retirement, i.e., they will meet the 70-75 percent threshold often cited as the amount required for pre-retirement consumption. For those without pensions of any kind, the replacement rates fall below the adequacy threshold, and the shortfall can be substantial (Munnell & Soto, 2005).
In fact, Munnell & Sunden (2004) report that less than half of all workers are covered by any type of pension plan by their current employee, a figure that has held steady since 1979. Social security is the primary source of monthly income for todayís elderly Americans even as its viability has been called into question (Munnell & Sunden, 2004; Munnell & Soto, 2005). The future may hold a different reality.
In the years ahead, the age at which benefits may be tapped will rise, and more taxes will be taken from these payouts along with deductions for Medicare premiums. Moreover, future retirees face the uncertainties that accompany the change from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans. Defined benefit plans are those in which an employer contributes most of the funds and bears the investment risk; benefits are guaranteed and paid as an annuity (Munnell, Sunden, & Taylor, 2001). More companies today are offering defined contribution plans, which shift all the responsibility from the employer to the employee-- "The employee must decide whether or not to join the plan, how much to contribute, how to invest the assets, what to do about company stock, and whether to roll over accumulations when changing jobs, and how to withdraw the money in retirement" (Munnell et al., 2001, p. 1).
In short, many people are going to have less income than they think they will have. Some cannot think of retirement (sans work) at all (Sorensen, 2007; Brown, Jackson, & Faison, 2007). In addition, some economists are recommending that people consider adding a few years of work to their plans for retirement (Munnell & Soto, 2005), a recommendation that is already finding favor in that labor force participation rates among older workers are rising (Jaffe &Copeland,2003).
Importance of Topic to Work-Family Studies
Decisions about retirement and work are made in the context of family life and the need for retirement income, if retirement is possible at all, is crucial to the family circumstances of both men and women. Menís and women's retirement patterns differ, and caregiving in later life is still a family concern even as work responsibilities continue. All of these issues are intertwined.
Women, in particular, face constraints on their retirement plans, owing mostly to their family roles. Although married women are typically younger than their spouses, women's retirement plans tend to be subordinated to those of their spouses i.e., they are more likely to retire because their spouse retires than because they planned or wanted to retire (Moen & Altobelli, 2007). Further, whereas women tend to retire in order to take care of their ill spouses, men, when confronted with the same situation, tend to hire home help and continue to work (Pavalko & Henderson, 2006). The latter finding reflects gender differences in caregiving role expectations (Sarkisian & Gerstel, 2004; Wink & James, 2007).
Moreover and perhaps more importantly, despite the progress made by women in paid employment in the last 25 years, the typical work patterns for women still differ from those of men in ways that have important consequences for their financial well-being in later life. Based on data prepared for a report to the Social Security Administration, Entmacher (1999) testified that women are more likely than men to work part-time to accommodate family demands, take one or more years off, change jobs more frequently, and work in small as compared to larger businesses, which typically do not provide pensions or other benefits (for a summary, see Barnett, 2006).
Even when women continue to work after childbirth, they suffer wage penalties from making use of ìfamily-friendlyî policies which reduce face time in the office (telecommuting and reduced work hours). These penalties are still apparent 10 years after they use such benefits (Glass, 2004). Those who leave the labor force altogether suffer even greater penalties in terms of life-time earnings (Dailey, 2000). Entmacher (1999) also says that while some educated women have made gains in terms of wages earned and benefits accrued, many women still work in the same kinds of jobs their mothers did, and their real wages have been declining or stagnant until very recently. He concludes that the overall disparity between women and men in retirement income will not change dramatically in the foreseeable future.
Whether women have worked continuously or intermittently, they are generally expected to be the caregivers in times of family need (Pavalko & Henderson, 2006). Parenthetically, Sarkisian & Gerstel (2004) find that caregiving responsibilities fall to women more often because, as mentioned above, their jobs are typically lower-status and lower-paid than are their husbandsí jobs. These authors find that men and women who are similarly situated are equally likely to provide caregiving when it is called for.
The fact remains that most caregivers of the elderly are women, nearly 75% according to a survey reported by the National Academy on an Aging Society (Entmacher, 1999), and many of these women need to work for their own financial well-being. According to the Family Caregiver Alliance, an informal or family caregiver is "anyone who provides [unpaid] assistance to someone else who is, in some degree, incapacitated and needs help: a husband who has suffered a stroke; a wife with Parkinson's disease; a mother-in-law with cancer; a grandfather with Alzheimerís disease; a son with traumatic brain injury from a car accident; a child with muscular dystrophy, a friend with AIDS" (cited in Roundtree & Lynch, 2006, p. 2).
Pavalko and Henderson (2006), using the National Longitudinal Survey of Young Women (the women were 14-24 in 1968), reported that women who find themselves in a caregiving role are more likely to quit their jobs than to cut back or try to work things out with their employer. The exception to this is in situations where the employer has made it clear that flexibility is possible; "Controlling for other job characteristics, women who reported access to flexible hours had 50% greater odds of still being employed two years later than those who did not have access to this benefit" (p. 366). Work-family researchers are interested in illuminating strategies that workplaces can use to make it possible for care-givers to continue to work while bearing responsibility for caregiving.
Roundtree and Lynch (2006) predict that adult caregiving needs will drive policy development and employer responses in the same way that the challenge of finding child-care did for the last 20 years. As of now, mid-career employees generally feel compelled to address their aging and self-care needs with individual solutions, while raising children and caring for parents, and sometimes even grandparents (Roundtree & Lynch, 2006).
The Emergence of a New Life Stage
The news that the American workforce is aging has been widely heralded. Demographers and other analysts suggest that a huge percentage of the workforce is made up of these older workers. Who is an older worker? The answer varies across historical periods and industrial sectors and is not as linked to age as it once was according to Pitt-Casouphes & Smyer (2006). Thus, researchers use different definitions. Anyone over 40 is protected by the Age Discrimination in Employment (ADEA). In general a worker starts to be older at age forty for hiring purposes (see for example, Lahey, 2005). Nearly 40% of employees think that employers begin to view a worker as old by the age of 50 (Reynolds, Ridley, & Van Horn, 2005). With all the above caveats, Pitt-Catsouphes and Smyer (2005) define an older worker as 45 years and older and remind us that these workers make up 37% of the U.S. labor force.
Some say that there may not be enough younger workers to replace the workers who are expected to retire in the next 15 years (Herman & Gioia, 2003; Nyce & Schieber, 2001). This phenomenon, although disputed by some (Cappelli, 2003) has been described variously as "the graying of America," (Smither & Braun, 1994) "a demographic avalanche," (Salt, 2001) and the most colorful one, "like a big pig moving through a python" (Dychtwald et al., 2006, among others). Moreover, in general these workers are healthier and can expect to live longer than previous generations did (Sorensen, 2007).
Grafova et al. (2007) report that current generations (people who are 65-79 in 2001) are healthier than previous generations (people who were 65-79 in 1984) during their added years. They also suffer less steep declines in mental and cognitive abilities than did previous generations (Willis & Schaie, 2007). Sorensen (2007) points out that for now the poverty rate is low among individuals aged 65 and over with less than 10% of men and just over 10% of women falling into the poor or very poor category. Sorensen (2007) says that the fact that there are fewer poor elderly than any other age category, including children, is attributable to Social Security that contributes on average nearly 50% of income among men ages 65-79 and, by age 75-79, constitutes two thirds of womenís income (see also Entmacher, 1999).
The fact of somewhat greater longevity and health has led some to suggest that there is actually a new life stage emerging for older adults who are between the ages of sixty-five and seventy-nine (Wink & James, 2007). Referred to as the Third Age, it is described as that time in life post employment (i.e., retirement) and post active parenting when people have a chance to experience new levels of personal fulfillment, the "apogee of personal life," according to Laslett (1996, p. 4).
"As Americanís influential Baby Boom generation approaches retirement age, the vision of a traditional work-free retirement is yielding to a new notion of a work-filled retirement" (Reynolds, et al., 2005, p.1). As Vaillant points out, a "career is not just a job but your defining purpose, the core of your being" (Trafford, 2004, p. 14). He said it can be a combination of work and family, the place where you find contentment, compensation, competence, and commitment. A study by AARP (2003) showed that nearly 70% of workers over 45 say they plan to work in their retirement years. In a survey by the Council of over 300 older Americans, more than 40% of those 65-74 reported that they were working. Nearly 20% said that they had not officially retired. Another 23% said they had retired but were still in the workforce. Some people want to continue working beyond the conventional retirement ages of 62 and 65.
More importantly, as mentioned above, some people need to work longer. Some people cannot afford retirement at all, especially single, African American elderly women (Brown, et al., 2007). As mentioned, recent research indicates that traditional sources of retirement income may not be sufficient to maintain an adequate level of retirement income for future low- or middle- income individuals (Burtless & Quinn, 2002; Grafova, et al., 2007; Munnell, 2003). Added healthcare costs, high debt load (mortgages) and the expectation of reduced Social Security income for future retirees only exacerbate this possibility (Grafova, et al., 2007; Munnell, 2003). Thus, Munnell (2003) and others have suggested that the most effective way to maintain living standards in retirement is for future older Americans to remain in the labor force longer. Quinn (2002) in fact shows that the trend toward early retirement has been reversed in recent years, and points to a new trend in the popularity of "bridge jobs," the practice of leaving long-term employment for a few years for different work in anticipation of later retirement (Quinn, 2002).
Work in Later Life
Is continued work in later life a good thing? There is some evidence that working longer is good for mental health, at least for those who are physically and emotionally healthy enough to do so (BossÈ, Aldwin, Levenson & Ekerdt, 1987; James & Spiro, 2007; for an exception, see Atchley, 1999.) Both men and women in a large representative sample of adults (age 51-61 at the first wave of the Health and Retirement Study) who continued to work (either full- or part-time), had less depressive symptoms than those who were fully retired. Similar results have been reported by Wink (2007) who found that participants in the Institute of Human Development study who continue to work have better mental health than those who are retired. Moen and Fields (2002) also find that either active engagement with work or volunteer activity contributes to well-being.
Taking all these findings together, it appears that people in the Third Age who have structured activity do better in terms of mental health than those who neither work nor get involved in volunteer activities. Individuals who are forced to retire early tend to manifest lower well-being than others (BossÈ, et al., 1987; Warr, 1998). Loss of work then means not just loss of income, but also loss of the rewards of work such as daily structure, and a major source of social contacts, especially for those in higher status jobs (Juster, 1998; Sterns, 1998; Warr, 1998). Perhaps the intrinsic benefits of work explain the finding (James & Spiro, 2007) that moving from retirement back into work reduces negative affect.
It is, however, important to point out that many people do retire to great satisfaction and in fact find new leases on life during retirement, well articulated by Atchley (1999), Vaillant and DiRago (2007) , Helson and Cate (2007), and Winter, Torges, Stewart, Henderson, and Henderson (2007). Winter et al. (2007) considered those who wanted to continue working during the conventional retirement years as ìavoidantî of the retirement decision-making process (see also Laslett, 1996). In addition, it is clear that factors other than work (e.g., social, physical, psychological, economic) predict well-being in retirement. Knowing how to enjoy leisure, and finding pleasure in giving to others were the factors predicting satisfaction with retirement in several studies reported by James and Wink (2007). House (1998), summarizing a long program of research, concludes that the greatest physical and psychological well-being can be observed in those who are doing as much paid work as they would like to do. He says that on average older workers want a little more work, while younger (midlife) workers want to work less. Thus, some work involvement may facilitate well-being in retirement, but it is not the only pathway.
Indeed, work for older Americans is fraught with difficulty. Older workers are more likely to be discriminated against. Lahey (2005) reports that a young worker is 40% more likely to be offered an interview than an older worker. Older workers themselves perceive limited options and find jobs harder to get (Reynolds, et al., 2005). Reynolds et al. (2005) report that Americans believe overwhelmingly that older workers are more likely to be laid off in workforce reductions (even though this may not be true according to U.S. Labor Department research by Farber, 2005, cited in Reynolds, et al., 2005). Reynolds and his colleagues (2005) also say that more than half of workers they surveyed say that the present is not a good time to find a quality job. Clark, Burkhauser, Moon, Quinn & Smeeding (2004) show that work limitations for those over 55 have not improved in 20 years.
If work is to be part of the equation for the older adult, then the work environment may have to change as older employees clearly want work more on their terms than younger workers (Christensen, 2006). These older workers have particular needs, and they are not necessarily all the same. Some workers are still climbing, working toward promotions. This pattern may be especially relevant for women who started their careers later than did their husbands (see for example, Helson & Cate, 2007). Too often employers assume that these workers want to slow down.
Regardless of whether an older worker is still gaining altitude or whether she/he wants to cut back on work commitments, the majority of older workers do want more flexibility and autonomy in their work lives (Helson & Cate, 2007; AARP, 2002); some even change jobs to get such arrangements. Wenger and Appelbaum (2004), using Current Population Surveys, found that 46% of workers age 55+ are working in nonstandard jobs, and Ω of these are self employed. Similarly, AARP (2003) reports that older workers want more flexibility in their schedules and more paid time off. They want to work in an environment where employee opinions are valued, where they can work as long as they want to, where they can take time off to care for relatives, and where they can set their own hours. They are also interested in having new experiences, learning new skills, helping others, and doing work that makes them feel productive and useful. Even Cappelli (2003) who disputes the idea that there will not be enough workers to replace retiring Baby Boomers comes to the conclusion that employers need to focus on ìdeveloping competencies in recruiting and selection, performance management, retention policies, and other practices that support their ability to find and keep good workersî (p. 232).
Flexible work arrangements (FWAs) have typically been seen as the sine qua non of workplace benefits for young parents with children. We are learning more and more that FWAs are also important at later stages of the lifespan (Moen, 2003). Research suggests that flexibility as to how one's work day is organized is rated as one of the top work/family employee benefits for assisting all employees with meeting the demands of their multiple and often times competing work, family and personal responsibilities (Bates, Briggs, Huff, Wright, & Neuman, 1999; Hohl, 1996; Pruchno, Litchfield, & Fried, 2000).
Some companies are already making adjustments for older workers by offering such possibilities as part-time work or reduced hours, and/or phased retirements. A recent SHRM survey (reported by Pitt-Catsouphes & Smyer, 2005) revealed that 25% of the companies surveyed offered options for reduced hours. Phased retirement is a program of reduced hours for older workers and is defined in different ways by different groups (human resources, researchers, and lawyers). For research purposes the accepted definition is: "The basic idea of phased (or gradual) retirement is that an older worker remains with his or her employer while gradually reducing work hours and effort" (Hutchesn & Grace-Martin, 2004, p.1; cited in Sheaks, Pitt-Catsouphes, & Smyer, 2006, p. 1).
Other options for older workers include having the option to work on a project basis, the option to take career leaves, the option to consider different jobs and different levels of responsibility within the company, and having the option to work from alternative locations (e.g., Florida in the winter and Vermont in the summer). AARP (2002) now has a program for recognizing the efforts of such companies by giving them the distinction of "best employers for workers over 50."
Implications for Practice and Future Research
Though progress is being made, the business culture at large is yet to complete the transition to a culture of work schedule flexibility, even for parents with young children (Christensen, 2004). Research is needed to identify strategies that are most successful in making FWAs both useable and beneficial in terms of helping older workers live the lives they want to lead, while maintaining customer satisfaction and company productivity in their places of employment.
Of course flexibility is only one solution. There are numerous ways to accommodate older workersí wishes and desires for phasing into or out of retirement. Some companies use retired workers as substitutes. Some companies are forming senior leadership teams who return to the company for special projects or for certain months of the year. Researchers need to focus on older workers themselves to learn more about how businesses can fully exploit their added years of health and vitality. Too much of what we know about what older workers are going to want and need is based on predictions about the future. We need longitudinal data that tracks workers over time showing the extent to which their needs and priorities change as they age. As different cohorts may change in different ways, we need multi-cohort studies. Ethnographic studies describing in detail the context of older workersí lived lives at home and at work would also be beneficial.
To be sure, the work environment may have to change as older workers are saying that they are going to want work more on their terms than younger workers (Christensen, 2006). They may want less work, or different kinds of work, or to work at a different pace (Sweet & Moen, 2006). They may want to work only certain times of the year. It behooves us to find out more about what they do want, especially if the replacement rate problem becomes a reality.
There is much work to be done in the new context described here. It seems clear though that aging and work are not contradictory terms, and the topic of work and family is an issue ripe with potential for research by gerontologists.
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