Mandatory retirement is perhaps a necessary evil; as older employees are forced out of the work force, it creates space for new, younger employees. Mandatory retirement is a form of age discrimination, it forces a person to retire because they are a certain age; it does not take into account if that person wants to retire. It also does not take into account the financial standing of the individual, or if they are physically or mentally still capable of doing the job.
Although mandatory retirement is not largely popular, it still has an effect on many older workers and how they plan for retirement. "Mandatory retirement involves less than 1 percent of the work force and so opens up only a small fraction of the total jobs", because mandatory retirement effects such a small population, "Nor is forced retirement needed to create vacancies; most older workers retire voluntarily, and still do so even though mandatory retirement has been largely outlawed in the United States" .
Not only is mandatory retirement illegal in many states, when polled it was found that 90 percent of adults, and two thirds of business executives were in opposition to a set mandatory retirement age . It seems odd that so many people are opposed to mandatory retirement and yet it is still enforced in many workplaces.
Perhaps the answer lies in the cost of senior employees; with pay raises and laws on paid vacation, it seems that the longer an employee works for the same company, the more expensive they are. It is also known that older people have degenerating health, and are more likely to be injured in an accident; the cost of life insurance increases with age, and they are likely to use more benefits to cover the cost of medical care .
Demograp...
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... elderly and the seeming decline in youth to fill their voids will itself abolish mandatory retirement.
Bibliography
Martin Lyon Levine, Age Discrimination and the Mandatory Retirement Controversy; The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 1988.
Julia M. Kreps, Lifetime Allocation of Work and Income: Essays in the Economics of Aging; Duke University Press, North Carolina, 1971.
Carol Segrave Humple and Morgan Lyons, Management and the Older Workforce: Policies and Programs, AMA Management Publications Division, American Management Associations, 1942.
William B.P. Robson and A BNAC Statement, Aging Populations and the workforce: Challenges for Employers, Printcrafters Inc., Winnipeg Manitoba, 2001.
George W. Adams, Mandatory Retirement and Constitutional Choices, Industrial Relations Center, Queen's University, Kingston Ontario, 1992.
The subsequent paragraphs contain a general analysis as well as a description of the legal questions and principles that were raised in the age discrimination case of Mckinney v. University of Guelph. This case raised the issue of whether a company or organization (in this case, a post secondary institution for education) should have jurisdiction over the age at which an individual must retire. Additionally, this document contains an analysis of the laws of mandatory retirement and how they are still currently in effect in countries such as China. Along with the aforementioned is a description of how mandatory retirement is imperative to population management,
The push for Congress to pass legislation protecting the rights of employees and their retirement was inevitable. Retirement plans are extremely important for all working individuals. Having funds to keep or exceed ones current standard of living and to enjoy one’s life beyond expectations after retire...
Age discrimination has become more than a minor inconvenience throughout the twentieth century; indeed, the issue has become such a hot potato within the workplace that laws have been forced into existence as a means by which to address the problem. In order to help protect those who stand to be singled out and let go because of the unfairness of ageism, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) was designed with the older employee in mind.
Elderly folks are eminently mature and have the finest instinct about what is right and wrong though It’s challenging to change someone’s point of view in a matter like this. When such injustice takes place, it de-motivates senior workers from their work. In an article over Ageists by Vincent J Roscigno, he states facts about different views on older Americans in general and in workplaces such as, “most of the population consists of biases and preconceptions, and the accused are unashamed in their views of older Americans. Those who believe that younger employees have much more value than senior employees are inserting a strong assumption based on their age. “Ageist attitudes and discrimination is what results in lower levels of overall organizational commitment to older workers, and a “push” out of a particular workplace.” Just because of an older employee’s depiction, such unfairness circulates in workplaces which cause false impressions of older
'Social Security—the nation's largest, costliest, and most successful domestic program has reached a critical juncture in its development. As its creators anticipated, nearly every wage earner now pays taxes into the system. In principle, all citizens may be eligible for "entitlements" at some point in their lives. Yet...senior citizens worry that their benefits will be cut; younger Americans are skeptical—if not cynical—about their own benefits upon retirement.'
(Bendick, Brown & Wall, 1999). A new awareness of older workers has emerged as retiring
Stossel and Mastropolo’s thesis did not come until at the middle of the article when they talked about how Murray Schwartz is convinced “that older people can do the job just as well as younger people and believes that employment age discrimination laws are a crucial protection for older workers” (paragraph 11). With this issue, there are two sides of argument in this article: one is from the corporate as to why it is a necessity to fire people when they come of age, and the second one is from the workers being affected at this age discrimination. There are several people applying for jobs these days and a company attempts to fill that job with the best qualified person. If a per...
... to retire we are experiencing for the first time a vast difference in the attitude, outlook and skill set of workers in the United States. What this is causing is for leaders of companies to be vastly more dialed in and aware of these ethical changes, while preparing and educating younger workers to assure that their business model, products and services they offer, as well as the ethics of these companies, continue to improve.
These people may not be prepared to retire at the given age. It is possible that people who are forced to retire may actually choose to continue to work (“Should People Be Forced to Retire at a Certain Age?”). The United States should not force teachers to retire to retire at a certain age, because the students would not really understand what the teacher was teaching at the time she left when she turned at certain age. When one considers teachers and their well being then it is clear that teachers should be forced to retire at a certain age because they could survive on their retirement funds so people should let teachers work until they feel the need to
... active workforce. In this scenario, the number of aged people needing care from the younger generation would be relatively high. The situation implies that the aged people would have to work past their retirement ages and take care of themselves. There are consequences associated with overworking at old age such as developing illnesses and eventual premature loss of life. The premature loss of life lowers the life expectancy of a country. In this regard, voluntary childlessness reduces the number of people in the community. The long term effect of the situation is that it lowers life expectancy in adults.
The amount of people working into their retirement age is growing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that by 2014, 41 percent of adults aged 55 and older will still be in the work-place. The Metlife foundation and Civic Ventures found that 66 percent of adults age 50 to 59 plan to keep working during their retirement years and 15 percent of those say they will never retire (Sander 643).
Age discrimination issue is getting serious with the modernization and industrialization of the United States. However, the issue did not catch policy makers’ attention until WWII (1939-1945). The following part shows the time prior the Age Discrimination of Act 1967.
This strategy aims to employ workers from different backgrounds to provide tangible and intangible benefits for the business. The employers are the ones who control everything from the wage, promotions, incentives and the termination of the older counterparts. They are increasingly concerned about updated skills, physical demands, early retirement, and the cost of maintaining an older worker. Despite how employers may feel, companies cannot afford to neglect talent at any age. The employer should take advantage of the skills that the older employee posses, and carefully position them in jobs that matches their skill level as well as the job to be done. “Regardless of the change organizations make in the structure and functioning of the workplace of the future, it appears likely that older workers will play a crucial role (Hedge,Borman,& Lammlein, 2006). Different acts and laws are governed to respond to any discrimination against older employees in the workforce. Employment agencies, labor unions, local, state and Federal government are bound by these laws such as: Older Workers Benefits Protection Act (OWBPA); The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Older Americans Act (OAA), to name a few. Funds for service by the Congress are provided in forms of grants for various programs yearly. States, counties, and cities recognize the value of the servicing and are generous in providing additional funds, benefits and in-kind economic benefits too. Because area and state agencies on aging are doing very little in a way to use mass media to promote themselves, the aging network is probably missing a large number of disadvantage people who should be receiving services but who are unaware of them. Much more emphasis has been placed on tying together the federal services for the older workers, but it should not have taken a federal initiative to make states see
Another study and test with the purpose to empirically test this hypothesis by estimating different effect of age discriminations policies on older women and older men in the work force. The results in this study found huge differences between older women and older men in retirement and employment, which lead to the point that more discriminatory laws should be implemented to protect older women.
Allers, Kimberly Seals. "How Fit Are Your Finances?" Ebony 68.9 (2013): 93-97. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Nov. 2013. Bauer, Gabrielle, and John Southerst. "A promising retirement: your life, your way." Maclean's 18 Feb. 2013: 37+. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.