Bridget Ansel at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth writes—More women in the United States are working past retirement age:
It’s not uncommon for working women and men to scale back their hours to part-time as they grow older. But a growing number of women are bucking this trend, working past the traditional retirement age. According to a new paper by Harvard University economists Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz, the growth in women’s increased labor force participation beyond their 50s and into their 60s and 70s is overwhelmingly driven by those working full-time.
So why are more women working longer? Part of the explanation has to do with women’s increased labor force participation overall. The women who today are in their 60s and 70s are much more likely to have worked throughout their life compared to those who were at those same ages 10 years or 20 years ago. Education also plays a role: College-educated women (as well as college-educated men) are much more likely to work full time into their 60s and 70s compared to less-educated Americans. The number of older women in the workforce with a bachelor’s degree also is rising.
At first glance, it may seem that anemic savings have something to do with this new labor force trend. About 60 percent of all U.S. households have no savings in an Individual Retirment Account or defined-savings retirement plan such as a 401(k) account. A recent Federal Reserve report on economic well-being finds that 26 percent of those surveyed claimed their retirement plan is to “keep working as long as possible.”
But Goldin and Katz find that financial insecurity isn’t the whole story. The increase in later-life employment is happening among women who are better educated and healthier, which tend to go hand-in-hand, and therefore are more likely to be in white-collar occupations that are relatively well-paid. What seems to matter is whether women enjoy their jobs. As Goldin and Katz say, “As jobs become more enjoyable and less onerous and as various positions become part of one’s identity, women work longer.” [...]
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2005—Getting ahead of the issue on Iraq:
Elected Democrats have been rightly knocked around for having no leadership instincts, and that's nowhere more visible than on the issue of Iraq. While Democrats in DC and in races around the country want to pretend that Iraq can be trumped by health care and social security, there's just no way that's going to happen. Iraq will be issues number one, two and three on voters' minds.
Now here's the problem. Most DC Democrats I've spoken to are very much against the war, but they're afraid to say so. Afraid to look weak. Afraid that they'll be tarred as peaceniks.
Yet, despite any high-profile opposition to the war, more and more people are turning on Bush's War. And now that polling is showing the American people increasingly disenchanted with the war and agitating for a pullout, more Democrats will feel compelled to take "courageous" stances on the war, now that only 32 percent of the American people approve of it.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Don, Jr. vies for the “Dumbest Trump” title. Greg Dworkin provides an even keeled polling update. Armando adds still more insight into Cuban-American voters. A Bush tells a Kennedy he’ll vote for Clinton. Freedom Caucus impeachment bid blocked.
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