By Cathy Severson
Recently, I became interested in genealogy. The research on my father’s side of the family produced interesting information about aging and retirement change over the last century.
My great grandfather was born in 1825. He immigrated to the United States from Germany around 1850. We were able to locate the census for 1880, which listed his occupation as a postmaster. What was interesting is the 1900 census, when he was 75 years old, listed his occupation as a switchman for the railroad. He lived in Chicago where many people worked for the railroad. I found it interesting that he might have worked at a more physically demanding job at 75 than when he was 55.
Has people plan and adjust their retirement expectations, few think about the history of retirement and how it has changed over the years. One thing that has changed significantly over the years is called the work to retirement ratio. This is the number of years a person works compared to the average number of years in retirement.
In the year 1900, the average retirement age was 74 after having worked 53 years. The average retirement was only 1.2 years, so the ratio was 54 to 1. In 1950, around the time when many baby boomers were born, the average age of retirement had only dropped to age 70 after working 49 working years. Because of the extend life expectancy, the average person was retired for 7.8 years which resulted in a significant change in the ratio to 6.3 working years to 1 retirement years.
If we jump to the early twenty-first century (prior to recession of 2008), the average retirement age had dropped to age 63, following a working life of 42 years. The average person currently retired 19.2 years, which results in a work/retirement ratio of 2.2:1. People spend about half of their time in retirement to what they spent working.
Since 1900, the retirement age dropped from 74 to 63. The average years of work dropped from 53 to 42. The average years in retirement has extended from 1.2 to 19.2
As baby boomers reach retirement age, and government grapples with policy changes in Social Security and Medicare, it’s important to keep in mind the aging and retirement change has been significant in the last century. We will have to continue to redefine what that means for generations to come.