There’s a new reality for old age in America, The Washington Post writes.
Living longer and more expensive lives without a safety net, a record number of Americans over 65—nearly one in five—are working.
Some work by choice, but millions of others have entered retirement age with fragile finances, The Post reports, noting that today 9 million senior citizens work compared to 4 million in 2000.
The reason: changes in the U.S. retirement system have shifted the responsibility for saving from the employer to the worker and two recent recessions have devastated personal savings. Also at a time when 10,000 baby boomers are turning 65 every day, Social Security benefits have lost about a third of their purchasing power since 2000.
“There is no part of the country where the majority of middle-class older workers have adequate retirement savings to maintain their standard of living in their retirement,” says Teresa Ghilarducci, a labor economist who specializes in retirement security. “People are coming into retirement with a lot more anxiety and a lot less buying power.”
