The Senate Select Committee on Aging Sept. 3 hosted a forum to explore the complex issues surrounding how to retain and keep an aging workforce productive in order to ease an expected labor shortage within the country over the next several years.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates that more than 25 percent of the working population will have reached retirement age by the year 2010, leaving a potential worker shortage of close to 10 million.
"It is important that lawmakers understand what is happening now with our older workforce and learn what the experts say about necessary changes as we move into a new era of worker shortage," said Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, who is chair of the committee.
Four experts testified before the committee. Deb Cohen, SPHR, vice president of knowledge development for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) presented the findings from recent research the Society conducted on older workers and employee job satisfaction.
Cohen noted that while workers age 40 and older are legally protected by the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, SHRM's survey findings reveal that "organizations are still in need of dealing with perceptions surrounding older workers and understanding stereotypes that may exist."
For example, SHRM's older worker survey, conducted with the Alexandria, Va.-based nonprofit National Older Worker Career Center and the independent, nonpartisan Committee for Economic Development, revealed a wide variance in HR professionals' perceptions of who is considered an older worker protected by federal legislation. It also revealed different perceptions among HR professionals and hiring managers in how open their organizations were to hiring older workers.
In addition, the SHRM/USA Today Job Satisfaction Poll revealed there were differences between what HR professionals and older workers perceived to be important to overall job satisfaction.
"The issue is not getting as much attention as it should given the demographic changes that are in store for the workforce," Cohen said. "Older workers will be a major part of the workforce in years to come. Programs and activities must be developed to address the ability to hire and retain these individuals, as well as addressing the needs of these individuals in the workplace."
Craig Spiezle, CEO of AgeLight Consultancy Group, located in Clyde Hill, Wash., testified that companies need to focus not only on hiring older workers, but on increasing technical training for pre-retirees.
"Employers need to consider a comprehensive strategy that includes training policies, retention and recruitment programs," Spiezle said, "It will slow the exodus [of older workers] from the workforce and the knowledge and talent drain, while maximizing older workers' productivity."
Two other panelists addressed federal compliance issues that currently limit employers' ability to recruit and retain older workers. University of Virginia Professor Leora Friedberg cited the Social Security earnings test as one obstacle that affects whether older employees will remain in the workforce.
"A beneficiary aged 62 to 64 loses $1 in benefits for every $2 in earnings once earnings pass a limit of $11,280," said Friedberg. This, she added, is "effectively a 50 percent marginal tax rate since total income rises by only a dollar when earnings rise by two."
As a result, she said, "the earnings test leads some beneficiaries to reduce their hours of work and perhaps to retire."
Fine tuning some of the administrative requirements within the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and the Older Americans Act also could potentially free up funds for programs that support and train older workers at the state level, according to Melinda M. Adams, who testified on behalf of the Idaho Commission on Aging. Adams, who for the past 16 years has directed the state's older worker program, called for Congress to streamline federal programs by reducing funding duplication and simplifying procurement policies under Title V of the Older Americans Act, and by strengthening the coordination planning process required of state governors under WIA.
Document Number: A109136205