According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 17.7 percent of
people 65 or older are still working, compared with 11.7 percent in 1995. Of
course, part of this increase could be due to a growing fear felt by many Americans
about financial insecurity during retirement. Survey data have shown that fears
about outliving one’s savings are factoring into retirement planning. They are
even prompting 34 percent of workers 60 or older to say they plan to work until
they die or are too sick to continue, according to a recent Wells Fargo survey.
Some workers just want a gradual transition, whether for
financial reasons or to keep working in jobs in which they can contribute and
help train the next generation. Slightly more than 40 percent of U.S. workers
hope to cut back hours or transition to a less-demanding position before
retirement, according to a 2015 report from the Transamerica Center for
Retirement Studies.
One option offered by a small number of employers is “phased
retirement,” which allows retiring workers to go part time while also mentoring
their incoming replacement, providing for a smoother transition. The Society
for Human Resource Management puts the number at 8 percent.
In other cases, employers are eschewing formal arrangements
in favor of short-term contracts. For federal workers, Congress passed
legislation in 2012 creating a phased-retirement program, and the Office of
Personnel Management formalized the rules last year.
The personnel office has finalized only 16 applications for
phased retirement from workers at the Library of Congress, NASA, the
Broadcasting Board of Governors and the Energy Department. It expects to soon
receive 12 from the Smithsonian Institution. That’s from a federal workforce
where 45 percent of employees are 50 or older. The personnel office has
stressed that it is up to a federal agency to decide whether and when to offer
a phased-retirement option.
Tancred Lidderdale, 62, is one of the initial 16 who chose
phased retirement. He works for the Energy Department as an economic
forecaster, applying highly complex math models to oil and natural-gas markets.
He has had an integral role in building these models for two decades. Lidderdale
will work part time for the next two years. But after nearly three years of
waiting, many other federal workers are wondering whether the program will even
arrive in time for them.
One explanation for the delays is that agreements must first
be struck between management and labor unions. Email and phone requests for
comment to AFGE, the largest federal labor union, were not returned. There are
also just basic difficulties of scale. How do you offer the same option to all
workers when not all jobs are created equal?
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