Will people be healthy enough to work longer?

Will people be healthy enough to work longer?

Will people be healthy enough to work longer?

Munnell

Alicia Haydock

Munnell, Alicia Haydock

Dept. of Finance, Carroll School of Management

Author

Author

Soto

Mauricio

Soto, Mauricio

Author

Author

Golub-Sass

Alex

Golub-Sass, Alex

Author

Author

text

working paper

Chestnut Hill, Mass. Center for Retirement Research at Boston College20082008monographic

Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Center for Retirement Research at Boston College

2008

2008

monographic

Englisheng

English

eng

electronicapplication/pdfborn digital

electronic

application/pdf

born digital

If Americans continue to retire at age 63, a great many will risk income shortfalls especially at older ages. Because work directly increases current income, Social Security benefits, retirement saving, and decreases the length of retirement, a logical solution would be to increase the age of retirement. But are Americans healthy enough to work longer? Using the National Health Interview Study, this paper shows that healthy life expectancy increased by about three years over 1970-2000 for the average 50-year old man. This increase is largely the result of men moving up the education ladder, with minimal increases within educational groups. Moreover, major disparities in healthy life expectancy remain between those in the bottom and top quartiles of the population. And these disparities mean that a vulnerable portion of the population perhaps those who most need to work longer might not be able to extend their work lives.

Alicia H. Munnell, Mauricio Soto, and Alex Golub-Sass.

CRR WP2008-11

CRR WP2008-11

CRR WP

2008-11

http://crr.bc.edu/images/stories/Working_Papers/wp_2008-11.pdf

MChBEnglisheng

MChB

Englisheng

English

eng