A Joint Economic Committee (JEC) Democrats report maintains older Americans contribute an estimated 40 percent of the national economic output despite making up 35 percent of the population.
Officials noted the report also determined the share of older workers has almost doubled in the last two decades while revealing the pandemic disproportionately harmed older workers in the labor market by pushing many of them into unemployment or out of the labor force – contributing to higher senior poverty rates.
“Older workers are essential to the strength and resilience of the U.S. economy,” said U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), JEC chairman. “They support families and communities nationwide, and they bring decades of earned experience to businesses and marketplaces, large and small. But these workers have faced—and continue to face—challenges in the labor market that harm both their economic security and our collective prosperity.”
Other report findings, per officials, include discrimination continuing to create older worker barriers to employment for older workers; reduced earnings and poor working conditions have harmed economic well-being among older workers; and retirement insecurity erodes the ability of workers to freely decide when to retire.
“No worker should be forced into early retirement,” Beyer said. “And at the same time, no one should be forced to work beyond their preference into their golden years because of insufficient retirement savings. Strengthening the bargaining power of older workers in the labor market and improving their retirement readiness will expand the economic participation of all workers and strengthen the U.S. economy for generations to come.”