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« What's Up in Tokyo? | Main | Wired Elders »
June 24, 2008 |Permalink |Comments (1)
Old Old Age
Professor Gloria Gutman has the kind of credentials that should guarantee a long, fruitful stay at the peak of her profession. She developed and directs the highly regarded Gerontology Research Centre at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. She's written or edited 20 books and more than 100 scholarly articles on such issues as housing for the elderly, dementia and long-term care. Her work is recognized beyond Canada's borders -- she's president of the International Association of Gerontology, representing organizations in 63 countries.
But last summer she faced a problem. On July 17 she turned 65. At Simon Fraser, as at many institutions and workplaces across Canada, that's the age of mandatory retirement. Happy birthday! Here's your watch, there's the door. One day you're 64, an internationally respected member of the faculty. The next, you're too old to be employed as an expert on aging.
How weird!
"I find it odious," Gutman says. "At whatever age we are, we should be judged on the basis of our competency."
In her view, Canada is tossing away a valuable part of its labour force. "It's insane when you figure what life expectancy is today," she says. "And look at demographics -- fertility rates are dropping. We need everybody to work who can work."
Increasingly, opinion leaders share that view. Mandatory retirement, once a hallmark of a prosperous and civilized society, now seems doomed by demographics. With too many old people and too few young, something's got to give. Even Canada's 66-year-old Prime Minister wants an end to mandatory retirement. It's a notion, however, that sends chills down the aching backs of some labourers bent over factory assembly lines, or office workers trapped in cubicleland, counting the months until their pension kicks in.
Comments ( 1)
It sounds like, for once, we may be ahead of Canada in addressing demographic issues through public policy actions. Our Social Security Administration recently raised the rate at which it increases payments for those who wait to claim their benefits, better compensating them for the reduced number of payments they will receive. Likewise, Social Security no longer reduces payments to working beneficiaries age 66 and older with substantial earnings. Another recent legislation was passed that would allow defined benefit plan participants who have not yet reached normal retirement age to receive plan benefits while still at work.
These are all very progressive steps in addressing the fact that, according to a recent AARP poll, 80% of workers want or expect to work in their retirement, well beyond the conventional retirement age.
Having said this, we still have a long way to go in identifying the numerous outdated laws, tax codes, and regulations that restrict older adults from staying in the work force passed normal retirement age. The concept of phased retirement is beginning to emerge but there is such variation in how individual local governments and private organizations are dealing with their older workers.
The most pressing problem, in my opinion, is presented by the Medicare rules forcing employer health benefit plans to pay for older workers who choose to remain in the work force. The federal law establishes employer-sponsored health insurance as the primary payer of health care costs for people age 65 and above. Medicare becomes the secondary coverage. Needless to say, employers have no incentive to keep their older employees in the workforce as the costs of paying for their health care can be staggering. These practices are counterproductive for the employers as they lose valuable workforce with the most skills, knowledge and talent.
As a proponent of national health insurance, I am hoping that our government's inaction with respect to Medicare is not caused by lack of concern but rather, by the desire to address the issue with a more sustainable solution that would benefit all of our citizens - both young and old.