Overtime: America's Aging Workforce and the Future of Working Longer
America is at a crossroads in its approach to work and retirement.

Many policymakers think it's logical—almost inevitable—that Americans will delay retirement and spend more years in the paid labor force. But it's an assumption that doesn't match the reality faced by a large and growing proportion of Americans. Though in many ways today's middle-aged adults are less financially prepared for retirement than today's retirees, precarious working conditions, family caregiving responsibilities, poor health, and age discrimination will make it difficult or impossible for many to work longer.

Overtime offers a current, revelatory corrective to our understanding of the future of the American workforce and aging. Experts across economics, sociology, psychology, political science, and epidemiology examine how increasing economic and social inequalities, coupled with changes across generations or birth cohorts, call for a rethinking of the working-longer policy framework. The contributors examine trends and inequalities in employment, health, family dynamics, and politics, helping to shed light on the challenges faced by traditionally marginalized social groups while showing that our society's responses to an aging workforce affect us all. Together, they argue that policies affecting work must be considered alongside policies affecting retirement and provide a path forward to achieve better retirement security for all Americans.

Drawing on the deep and varied expertise of its contributors, Overtime critically questions the conventional thinking of policy makers in this space to chart a more likely course for older Americans in the twenty-first century—one less reductive than simply "working longer."
1141490197
Overtime: America's Aging Workforce and the Future of Working Longer
America is at a crossroads in its approach to work and retirement.

Many policymakers think it's logical—almost inevitable—that Americans will delay retirement and spend more years in the paid labor force. But it's an assumption that doesn't match the reality faced by a large and growing proportion of Americans. Though in many ways today's middle-aged adults are less financially prepared for retirement than today's retirees, precarious working conditions, family caregiving responsibilities, poor health, and age discrimination will make it difficult or impossible for many to work longer.

Overtime offers a current, revelatory corrective to our understanding of the future of the American workforce and aging. Experts across economics, sociology, psychology, political science, and epidemiology examine how increasing economic and social inequalities, coupled with changes across generations or birth cohorts, call for a rethinking of the working-longer policy framework. The contributors examine trends and inequalities in employment, health, family dynamics, and politics, helping to shed light on the challenges faced by traditionally marginalized social groups while showing that our society's responses to an aging workforce affect us all. Together, they argue that policies affecting work must be considered alongside policies affecting retirement and provide a path forward to achieve better retirement security for all Americans.

Drawing on the deep and varied expertise of its contributors, Overtime critically questions the conventional thinking of policy makers in this space to chart a more likely course for older Americans in the twenty-first century—one less reductive than simply "working longer."
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Overtime: America's Aging Workforce and the Future of Working Longer

Overtime: America's Aging Workforce and the Future of Working Longer

Overtime: America's Aging Workforce and the Future of Working Longer

Overtime: America's Aging Workforce and the Future of Working Longer

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Overview

America is at a crossroads in its approach to work and retirement.

Many policymakers think it's logical—almost inevitable—that Americans will delay retirement and spend more years in the paid labor force. But it's an assumption that doesn't match the reality faced by a large and growing proportion of Americans. Though in many ways today's middle-aged adults are less financially prepared for retirement than today's retirees, precarious working conditions, family caregiving responsibilities, poor health, and age discrimination will make it difficult or impossible for many to work longer.

Overtime offers a current, revelatory corrective to our understanding of the future of the American workforce and aging. Experts across economics, sociology, psychology, political science, and epidemiology examine how increasing economic and social inequalities, coupled with changes across generations or birth cohorts, call for a rethinking of the working-longer policy framework. The contributors examine trends and inequalities in employment, health, family dynamics, and politics, helping to shed light on the challenges faced by traditionally marginalized social groups while showing that our society's responses to an aging workforce affect us all. Together, they argue that policies affecting work must be considered alongside policies affecting retirement and provide a path forward to achieve better retirement security for all Americans.

Drawing on the deep and varied expertise of its contributors, Overtime critically questions the conventional thinking of policy makers in this space to chart a more likely course for older Americans in the twenty-first century—one less reductive than simply "working longer."

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780197512067
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 09/21/2022
Pages: 352
Product dimensions: 10.08(w) x 7.30(h) x 1.19(d)

About the Author

Lisa F. Berkman is Director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies (HCPDS) and the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is an internationally recognized social epidemiologist whose work focuses extensively on social and policy influences on population health and health equity. Her research orients toward understanding inequalities in health related to working conditions, social and economic policies, and social networks and isolation.

Beth Truesdale is a research fellow at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research and a visiting scientist at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. Dr. Truesdale is a sociologist whose research focuses on inequalities in work and aging, the future of retirement, and the effects of social institutions and public policies on Americans' well-being.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Contributors

Introduction: Is Working Longer in Jeopardy?
Lisa Berkman and Beth C. Truesdale

Part I. Who Has a Job? Labor Trends from Commuting Zones to Countries

Chapter 1: When I'm 54: Working Longer Starts Younger than We Think
Beth C. Truesdale, Lisa Berkman, and Alexandra Mitukiewicz

Chapter 2: The Geography of Retirement
Courtney C. Coile

Chapter 3: The European Context: Declining Health but Rising Labor Force Participation among the Middle-Aged
Axel Börsch-Supan, Irene Ferrari, Giacomo Pasini and Luca Salerno

Chapter 4: Work and Retirement in the U.S. after the COVID-19 Pandemic Shock
Richard B. Freeman

Part II. What's the Fit? Workers and Their Abilities, Motivations, and Expectations

Chapter 5: The Link between Health and Working Longer: Disparities in Work Capacity
Ben Berger, Italo Lopez-Garcia, Nicole Maestas, and Kathleen Mullen

Chapter 6: The Psychology of Working Longer
Margaret E. Beier and Meghan K. Davenport

Chapter 7: Forecasting Employment of the Older Population
Michael D. Hurd and Susann Rohwedder

Part III. Lived Experience: The Role of Occupations, Employers, and Families

Chapter 8: Dying with Your Boots On: The Realities of Working Longer in Low-Wage Work
Mary Gatta and Jessica Horning

Chapter 9: Ad Hoc, Limited, and Reactive: How Firms Respond to an Aging Workforce
Peter Berg and Matthew Piszczek

Chapter 10: How Caregiving for Parents Reduces Women's Employment: Patterns Across Sociodemographic Groups
Sean Fahle and Kathleen McGarry

Part IV. Politics and Policy: Where Population Aging Meets Rising Inequality

Chapter 11: Working Longer in an Age of Rising Economic Inequality
Gary Burtless

Chapter 12: How Does Social Security Reform Indecision Affect Younger Cohorts?
John B. Shoven, Sita Nataraj Slavov, and John G. Watson

Chapter 13: The Biased Politics of "Working Longer"
Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson

Conclusion: What Is the Way Forward?
Lisa Berkman, Beth C. Truesdale, and Alexandra Mitukiewicz
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