Big Gap Between Retirement Plans of Today's Workers
and Reality of Retirees
Pew Research finds
77% pre-retirees plan to work; only 12% of retirees actually do
September
26, 2006 – The Pew Research Center has discovered a gigantic gap between
the retirement plans of current workers and what senior citizens already
retired have actually done. For example, Pew found 77 percent of today's
workers plan on continuing to work "for pay" after they retire. This
does not match with the reality of today's retirees – just 12% are
working for pay and only 27% have ever worked after retiring.
Most of today's workers also told Pew they plan on
working in retirement just because they will want to, not because they
will have to. But whatever the motivation, these expectations are
dramatically out of step with the experiences of people who are already
retired.
The Pew report also notes that only 27% of today's
retirees have ever worked for money in their retirement, which is
information from the 2006 Retirement Confidence Survey by Employee
Benefit Research Institute and Matthew Greenwald & Associates.
Some other highlights noted by Pew include:
● Disparity between the age at which today's
workers say they plan to retire and the age at which today's retirees
actually did retire. The average worker expects to retire at age 61,
while the average retiree actually retired at 57.8.
● Pew findings suggest that retirement is a phase
of life about which public attitudes, expectations and experiences are
in a period of transition that will continue as the share of adults ages
65 and older is expected to grow from 12% of the U.S. population in 2000
to 21% in 2050 and the fast that fewer people now work for employers who
provide defined benefit pension plans.
Working
After Retirement: Expectations and Reality Are Out of Sync
● Among those who say they expect to work for pay
after they retire, there are no significant differences by age, income,
gender, race, ethnicity, education or region. No difference either if
today they work for someone else or themselves.
● White collar workers (79%) are a little more
inclined to continue working that are blue collar workers (73%).
● People who work in schools are even more
inclined (85%) than others to say they expect to do some sort of work
for pay after they retire.
● Of the 12% of retirees Pew found working – 5%
worked full-time and 7% part-time.
● Retired men (16%) are more likely than retired
women (7%) to report working
● Retired college graduates (20%) are also more
likely to be working for pay than are those with less education (9%).
Working After Retirement: Have to or Want to?
● By a two-to-one margin, those who expect to
work after retirement say they will do so mostly because they'll want to
rather than because they'll have to.
● Those with more education and more income are
the most likely to say they'll work after retirement because they want
to.
● Younger workers (ages 18 to 29) and the
self-employed are more likely to say they'll work after retirement out
of desire.
● On the other side of the coin, parents of minor
age children are more likely than others to say they expect to work
after retirement because they'll need to.
● Blue collar workers and hourly workers say they
will need to work, too.
● There are no significant differences on this
question by gender, race, marital status or region of the country.
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Working After Retirement: Who's Thought About
It?
● Older working adults are more likely to report
having given either some or a lot of thought to the question of whether
they'll work after retirement - 66% ages 50 and older; 53% of those ages
30 to 49 and 39% of those ages 18 to 29.
● Those who have thought about whether or not
they will work after retirement (90%) are much more likely than those
who haven't thought about it as much 62% to say they will work after
retirement.
Age of Retirement: Expectations and Reality
● Workers plan to retire, on average, at age 61.
Not surprisingly, older workers say their retirement will be later in
life than do younger workers - the anticipated retirement age of those
50 and older is an average of 63.7 compared with 58.8 among those
currently ages 18 to 29.
● Working men are a bit more likely than working
women, on average, to plan an early retirement - 39% of working men plan
to retire at or before age 61 compared with 32% among women.
● Working women are less likely to name a
specific age for retirement, however; among all those who name a planned
retirement age, the average anticipated age of retirement is about the
same for men and women.
● Workers with higher family incomes are more
likely to say they will retire on the early side - 44% of those with
incomes of $100,000 or more say they will retire at or before reaching
age 61, while for those with incomes under $30,000 it is 29%.
● Less affluent workers are less likely than
those with more affluence to name a specific age for planned retirement;
among those who name a planned retirement age, the mean differences
across income groups are modest.
The Pew telephone survey was taken from June 20
through July 16 among a nationally representative sample of 2,003
adults. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
Follow this link to read more or to download a pdf copy of the entire
report.
Notes:
About the Pew Social Trends Reports
The Pew social trends reports explore the
behaviors and attitudes of Americans in key realms of their lives –
family, community, health, finance, work and leisure. Reports analyze
changes over time in social behaviors and probe for differences and
similarities between key sub-groups in the population.
The surveys are conducted by the Pew Research
Center, a nonpartisan "fact tank" that provides information on the
issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world.
Survey reports are the result of the
collaborative effort of the social trends staff, which consists of: Paul
Taylor, Executive Vice President, Cary Funk, Senior Project Director and
Peyton Craighill, Project Director
Related Reports from the Pew Research Center
American Work Life Is Worsening, But Most Workers Still Content.
August 30, 2006. Pew Research Center.
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