When it comes to work, baby boomers are having trouble finding the exit door.
Boomers are continuing to work past age 65 at higher rates than the previous two generations, according to the Pew Research Center. While 10,000 boomers reach retirement age every day, Pew reports, only 5,900 actually leave their jobs to retire.
Greater numbers of older Americans remaining in the workforce can have financial benefits, both for workers as well as the larger economy, which relies on a robust work force for growth. However, the prospect of so many older employees remaining on the job past their traditional retirement age can be a double-edged sword for employers.
Which edge an employer experiences may depend upon each boomer’s motivation for not retiring. Many older workers, particularly professionals and business owners, simply stay on the job because they enjoy their work, build their personal identities around their jobs, or can’t picture themselves doing anything else. Increasingly, though, boomers are working because they can’t afford to retire.
Nearly one in two boomers (45%) report having less than $25,000 saved and invested for retirement, according to the 2018 Retirement Confidence Survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). The paucity of savings is a big reason why the retirement market is so bearish.
Older workers who stay on the job because they love what they do can be a valuable asset. Replacing the knowledge, experience, skills and confidence older employees bring to the job can be challenging to say the least.
But what if an employee doesn’t want to be at work? What if a worker would rather be someplace else—anywhere else—but lacks the resources to retire? It’s the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) movement in reverse.
Retirement unreadiness can be an expensive problem, not just for boomer workers but for employers who need to focus on their bottom lines. An analysis performed by MassMutual finds that firms incur significant potential liabilities from employees who are financially unprepared to retire.
For example, salary and benefits costs for a 64-year-old employee generally exceed those for an average 37-year-old employee by more than $30,000 annually, according to data tracked by MassMutual. Premiums for workers’ compensation, disability and health insurance spike once an employee reaches retirement age. That means the cost of delaying retirement to age 70 from age 65 is approximately $150,000 on average for an individual employee. Multiply those numbers by several retirement-age employees who need to continue working past age 65 and the problem grows exponentially.
Employers that sponsor retirement plans such as 401(k)s and financial advisors who support them are turning to retirement plan providers to not only measure retirement readiness for employees in relative terms but to improve it as necessary. New tools are available from providers to help advisors analyze and potentially solve this conundrum for the benefit of both employers and employees. The most effective tools ascertain the costs of retirement unreadiness based on an employer’s own data, a critical consideration for business decision makers.