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For years, working longer has been promoted as the best way to shore up your retirement — especially if you're behind on savings. A 2018 study even found that delaying retirement by just six months can have a greater impact on financial security than significantly increasing your savings rate.
But economist Teresa Ghilarducci, professor at the New School and author of “Work, Retire, Repeat,” argued that this advice, while convenient, masks a deeper problem.
“The working longer consensus was really a convenient untruth,” Ghilarducci said in a recent episode of the Decoding Retirement podcast. “The consensus was that … if people haven't saved for the last 40 years … when we told them to, at least they have an out and we don't have to do anything about it.”
The root issue, she said, is that the responsibility has been shifted entirely onto individuals. The thinking goes that “since everyone is living longer, then people can clearly live and work longer,” she explained. “And since jobs are getting easier, then all people can work longer.”
Read more: Retirement planning: A step-by-step guide
But that logic is flawed, Ghilarducci argued, because the premise that everyone is living longer and has easier jobs is false. “And therefore, this idea that we could all just work longer to make up for retirement savings gaps is false,” she said.
While it's true that longevity has increased for some Americans, Ghilarducci pointed out that it's primarily those with stable lives, high-paying jobs, and access to quality healthcare.
“Men, and especially white men, have experienced the biggest longevity gains,” she said. “So we have a big average increase pulled up by these white men doing good things. But they've also been lucky because they've actually had work careers that lead to longer lives and maybe even a choice to live longer.”
For many others, life expectancy has stagnated. White women, for instance, have seen little to no improvement, in part, she said, because they are working more.
“Working actually isn't that good for you,” she said, adding that oftentimes, the benefits of working longer depend on whether an individual is “part of the elite.”
For the privileged few, work might make them healthier and keep their minds sharp, especially if they control the pace and content of their jobs, Ghilarducci said. But only about 11% of workers have that kind of autonomy.
