Retired seniors in the workforce—Why?
Retirees face growing threats from corporate greed and vanishing Social Security. The new Company Store is here.
“Roughly one-in-five Americans ages 65 and older (19%) were employed in 2023 – nearly double the share of those who were working 35 years ago.” PEW RESEARCH FOUNDATION
Click the image to open the link.
Working into later years is, for one thing, necessary for most. However, foremost is the fact that the government keeps raising the retirement age limit.
As the PEW Research Foundation article indicates that well paid older workers, for the most part, enjoy their jobs. So how is that corporate America is robbing the older retiree? In the second part of the article, The Growth of the Older Workforce, PEW RESEARCH begins by saying:
“Numbering roughly 11 million today (June, 2020), the older workforce has nearly quadrupled in size since the mid-1980s. The increase is driven in part by the growth of the 65-and-older population. The bulk of the Baby Boom generation has now reached that threshold.”
That was five years ago. However, this year, through 2030, as many as ten-million new retirees are expected annually as the bulk of the Baby Boomers age into retirement
Current Workforce Participation (2024–2025)
In 2024, 19.5% of Americans aged 65 or older were in the labor force (meaning they were working or actively looking for work)—with 23.4% of men and 16.2% of women participating. DOL+15Bureau of Labor Statistics+15New York Post+15
That equates to roughly 11.6 million individuals, who make up about 7% of the total U.S. labor force.
In the WSJ article, America’s 60-Year-Olds Are Staring at Financial Peril, of July 22, 2024, at 9:00 pm ET, authors Jon Kamp, Scott Calvert, and Paul Overberg speak extensively of how “financially exposed” so many of us baby-boomers have become.
By the end of this year, the youngest baby boomers will all turn 60. The birth dates of those in this generation—around 70 million strong, or one in five Americans—cover a 19-year span stretching from the aftermath of World War II to 1964, … More of these young boomers “are going to enter into retirement without the resources they need,” said David John, who studies retirement savings issues at the AARP Public Policy Institute.
How, then, can the Baby Boomers afford to quit working?
Statistics explain the trend, but individuals reveal the cost.
In another article in the Wall Street Journal, there is a story of Shauna Sharpes. She lives in Washington State (see image) where, at the time of the article, she resided with her fiancé in a house they are renovating. Like so many of us who approach those years of maturing skill levels and changing times, for her, life changed rapidly. Consequently, older retirees become the tail trying to wag the dog.
For Shauna, her intended life-long employment closed its doors, and she found it nigh on impossible to find suitable employment. The reasons are numerous. Whereas there are many lower skilled jobs, the hours and pay for such is below the poverty level. The simple fact is that time overtakes too many, leaving them with few or no options.
For every percentage point on a graph, there’s a Shauna—or someone like her—living through the consequences.
The Governments Part In Increasing Anxiety in Older Retired Citizens
When one worker falls behind, it’s a tragedy; when an entire generation does, it’s a policy failure.
Whether it be rumor or not, the threat that many government officials want to do away with Social Security is real.
With so many retiring, the Social Security System is unsustainable. All of which lends to the ever increasing anxiety of what future retirement will mean.
To allay the numbers of retirees entering the system, the government pushes out the legal retirement age. A tactic to keep us working longer (if we can survive it). Something that I personally view as an apparent act of legal extortion, i.e., work until you drop. Just like the Company store.
These large numbers of retirees means LARGE NUMBERS OF PENSION $$$, and corporations want their piece of the pie.
Where government stalls, corporations step in—not as saviors, but as creditors.
A brief historical analogy:
In the mid 20th century, the coal mines hired workers, gave them a home, and provided them an open account at what they mine owners: “*THE COMPANY STORE.”
The company store had many items needed to work the mines; items that the company required the miners to pay for at inflated prices. Consequently, the company attached the employees wages, and by extracting rent and purchases from their pay, the miners soon faced an insurmountable debt.
Unable to quit their job until the debt was paid, the miners found themselves in servitude to the coal industry. (For more information, see: The Molly McGuires)
(*You may recall an old song by Tennessee Ernie Ford called: Sixteen Tons)
In today’s world, what coal once did with ledgers, corporations now do with contracts.
Corporations: The Latest, Greatest Threat To Older People
Targeting Retiree Pensions and Social Security—Retirement Facilities Under Attack
The featured image in this article is from a Fortune Magazine article entitled, “For-profit groups have vacuumed up over 70% of America’s nursing homes, and health advocates are worried: ‘The care gets really bad’” written by Harris Meyer and KFF Health News, March 12, 2024.
One excerpt from the article points out that:
“Consumer advocates, researchers, and regulators are leery about this trend. They point to studies showing that nursing homes owned by for-profit companies — particularly investors in private equity and real estate — tend to have skimpier staffing, lower quality ratings, and more regulatory violations. Motivated by these concerns, the Biden administration issued a rule last fall that requires nursing homes to disclose more information about their owners and management firms.”
But behind these numbers are people, and their lives tell the story better than any chart. The following is from this author’s personal experience.
The 55+ communities, apartments, and housing are not immune—The authors personal experience:
The Aberdeen Community in Ormond Beach, FL, is a 55+ modular home community. When we moved here in 2018, we purchased and remodeled our home. Privately owned at that time, our lot rent was slightly over $700 per month.
It is a beautiful community, and well cared for by the in-house maintenance crew. Besides all the mowing and trimming of the lawns, they cared for the small run-off lakes, sprinkler system, and runoff drainage.
In July 2020, our community was swept up by the CORPORATE GIANT, North Western Mutual, which uses a company called Murex Property Management as rent controllers—one whose new “PROSPECTUS” drastically reduced amenities while increasing homeowner responsibilities AND RENTAL PRICES.
Since this acquisition, they replace our original property manager, in-house maintenance crew, and all associated employees, with employees of Murex Properties.
Murex blessed each homeowner with an immediate increase in property rental cost, with annual 5-6% increase. Added to this is a portion of the property pass-through tax. Meaning that we, the homeowners pay the property taxes on property that WE DO NOT OWN. As well, the sprinkler system, property drainage, and other items connected to the individual properties are the sole responsibility of the home owners.
Shaped by public law, the lack of legislation to control these greedy giants is no small concern, adding as it does to the daily burdens and struggles of so many retirees.
Corporate America is an independent entity. An entity that cares NOTHING about who lives, dies or suffers because of its actions
Proven time and again , “The Company Store” never really closed. Once upon a time, it shackled coal miners to debt they could never repay. Today, it reappears in another form—gleaming retirement communities, ballooning rents, shrinking pensions, and whispered threats against Social Security.
What was once a ledger of groceries and coal oil has become a balance sheet of corporate acquisitions and government policy.
The names have changed, but the trap remains the same: keep working, keep paying, and keep feeding a system designed to take the gravy from the plates of retirees who earned it, and pour it into the Corporate Coffers of the wealthy.
If we don’t recognize this shift for what it is, we may find ourselves, once again, working until we drop, indebted not in dollars, but in the loss of our independence.
If you would like to respond or comment:
Share This Story:
Leave A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
