Age Discrimination and Mandatory Retirement
Age Discrimination and Mandatory Retirement - Joyce Cook
The mandatory retirement age controversy should be re-examined and redefined further. Baby boomers are very different from their predecessors; they are living longer, maintain lifestyles that are more active and are generally better able to continue working than in the past. The real challenge is the reality of how the insufficient number of young people will fill the vacancies left by the aging workforce. Mandatory retirement may be unavoidable, as older workers are forced from the work field to create more vacancies for new younger employees. According to most seniors, it is an unfair practice and does not take into account if the person wants to retire; it also does not take into account the mental and physical capabilities or financial position of the person. Not a popular subject by most studies, often it has some effect on many elderly baby boomers plans on how they retire. Since it involves less than 1 percent of the working population, retirement only opens a small fraction of the total jobs and affects a tiny portion of the population. There is no need to force retirement to create vacancies; most workers retire voluntarily, and still do so even though mandatory retirement is outlawed in most of the United States. Critics for mandatory retirement of pilots at age 60, worry that safety may be compromised, since pilots in their 60’s may find it tougher to battle fatigue or rebound from jet lag than younger colleagues. The Air Line Pilots Association, (ALPA) and the Allied Pilots Association, (APA) has long been supportive of the “age 60 rule”. However, the Pilot Medical Solutions position has always believed the mandatory retirement of pilots was a political issue rather than one of safety or medicine. In 2007, President George W. Bush raised the controversial pilot retirement age to 65, yielding to the majority of pilots and aerospace engineers who believed the old 1950 rule was
The mandatory retirement age controversy should be re-examined and redefined further. Baby boomers are very different from their predecessors; they are living longer, maintain lifestyles that are more active and are generally better able to continue working than in the past. The real challenge is the reality of how the insufficient number of young people will fill the vacancies left by the aging workforce. Mandatory retirement may be unavoidable, as older workers are forced from the work field to create more vacancies for new younger employees. According to most seniors, it is an unfair practice and does not take into account if the person wants to retire; it also does not take into account the mental and physical capabilities or financial position of the person. Not a popular subject by most studies, often it has some effect on many elderly baby boomers plans on how they retire. Since it involves less than 1 percent of the working population, retirement only opens a small fraction of the total jobs and affects a tiny portion of the population. There is no need to force retirement to create vacancies; most workers retire voluntarily, and still do so even though mandatory retirement is outlawed in most of the United States. Critics for mandatory retirement of pilots at age 60, worry that safety may be compromised, since pilots in their 60’s may find it tougher to battle fatigue or rebound from jet lag than younger colleagues. The Air Line Pilots Association, (ALPA) and the Allied Pilots Association, (APA) has long been supportive of the “age 60 rule”. However, the Pilot Medical Solutions position has always believed the mandatory retirement of pilots was a political issue rather than one of safety or medicine. In 2007, President George W. Bush raised the controversial pilot retirement age to 65, yielding to the majority of pilots and aerospace engineers who believed the old 1950 rule was
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