The graying of the American workforce continues: Baby boomers are working longer and earning more than their predecessors did in what Americans typically think of as retirement years, new research finds.

Almost 20% of Americans ages 65 and older were employed this year, according to a new report from Pew Research Center. That’s nearly double the share of those who were working 35 years ago. In total, there are around 11 million Americans 65 or older who are working today, comprising 7% of all wages and salaries paid by U.S. employers. In 1987, they made up 2%.

And not only are more Americans at or above the traditional retirement age of 65 working, but they are also earning substantially more compared with what older workers earned in the 1980s. Now, the typical older worker earns $22 per hour, compared with $13 per hour then. Their wage growth—some of which can be attributed to their working longer hours than older Americans did in the past—has outpaced that of workers ages 25 to 64 over the same time period, according to Pew’s research, which is based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey and the Federal Reserve’s 2022 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking.

  • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    How so? They’re flopping between two parties just like the current generation of voters.

    Watch the reactions when I type this:

    Vote third party.

    • Sonicdemon86@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      The only way voting third party works is if we get rid of “first to the pole” and instead used something like “ranked choice” voting.

    • ExLisper@linux.community
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      10 months ago

      Voting third party works in other countries but in the American system the only real option is to vote for some fringe wing of one of the parties. Bernie lost with the establishment in the end but he was close. Trump actually won and took over the party. That’s the only way to do it.

      • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Boomers have been saying this shit for decades and I’m not seeing them achieve much.

        But you keep doing you.

        • ExLisper@linux.community
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          10 months ago

          What do you mean? Trump run the country for 4 years, packed the supreme court and banned abortion. If that’s not much I don’t know what is. Or do you think it doesn’t count because that’s not what you want to achieve?

    • Hildegarde@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      People blaming the boomers for the current problems have an overly inflated view of the power of ordinary people.

      The people are in power are those to blame, not the ordinary people who chose one of the few options presented to them.

      • dvoraqs@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        They also have collective power as a voting bloc and group that participates actively in local elections