APPENDIXES Appendix 1 MATERIAL SUBMITTED BY ROBERT J. AHRENS* ITEM 1. STATEMENT ON THE QUESTION OF MANDATORY RETIREMENT I would like to address the subject of age-based mandatory retirement, the root cause of most of the problems faced by today's senior citizens, and the consequence of the uninformed attitudes about aging that also result in the undervaluing of our older workers. Compulsory retirement policies based on chronological age alone can be extremely damaging to the individuals affected by these policies, through arbitrary termination of their worklife and careers. They affect society as a whole, negatively, and have no ultimate utility for even the organizations who administer these policies in the mistaken notion that they do. It is my deeply held conviction that mandatory retirement policies based on chronological age alone should be ended simply as a matter of principle. They fail to judge each man on the basis of his own merit and individual performance. It is said that it is difficult to determine whom to retire and whom to retain. I find no qualitative difference in this difficulty and similar difficulties in determining whom to hire, to promote, to transfer or to terminate and whom not. These decisions occur at many points in a man's career. Difficulties in making them are related only incidentally to age, if at all. What they chiefly relate to are the problems inherent in achieving objective measurements of a man's performance. But why should such difficulties become so critical at some given arbitrary age, such as 65 or 45, that they call automatically for the ending of a man's employment? To the extent that an organization truly has a grasp on its personnel requirements, it can translate these into functions. It then becomes a matter of determining the minimum physical, mental and perhaps emotional qualities necessary to each function, of recruiting, testing and hiring the personnel who can acceptably carry out these functions and of then maintaining periodic functional assessments of both the jobs and the people who fill them. Exactly this is being done by Dr. Leon Koyl of Canada, where the De Havilland Aircraft Corporation for whom he works, and other organizations have abandoned age-based mandatory retirement, to their own satisfaction as well as of their employees. The so-called GULHEMP Scale and tests, developed by Dr. Koyl, indicate not only that acceptable indicators and measurements of function can be developed for practical use, but the further testing of the Koyl method by United States companies in a Portland, Maine, research project of the National Council on the Aging, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, indicates that important cost savings by organizations can also result. The late Justice Holmes said that "to live is to function." In a society oriented to both work and youth, we find that age-based mandatory retirement policies end both a man's income and his function, or reduce both so severely that the individual faces what has come to be called "retirement shock" and the Nation as a whole faces a retirement income crisis. Most older people who are poor did not become poor until they became old. They were retired or widowed without sufficient retirement income, if any at all, beyond their social security check. It is for these people that we must reduce fares on our transit lines, provide low-cost food programs throughout the com *See statement, p. 53. munity, subsidize housing, and multiply a host of other social services. Even today, less than half of the work force, excluding farmers, is covered by any kind of private pension plan at all, and these people are the retirees of tomorrow. Many older people whom we find sunk in apathy and loneliness, are only so because the work activity around which their lives was centered, was suddenly and arbitrarily taken from them. Their physical and mental deterioration is almost sure to follow. It is not a rational policy to make these people poor and unproductive, but this is what age-based mandatory retirement programs have done. A National Institute of Aging of the U.S. Public Health Service has become law, to focus the growing researches on the process of aging itself. It is expected, by very reputable scientists, that within 15 to 25 years we may succeed in slowing down the whole process of aging, by extension of the middle, vigorous years of life. Meanwhile, IBM drops the retirement age for executives to 60, and Westinghouse talks of doing the same. In short, more people are living longer. We may soon extend the vigorous years of life by slowing the aging process down. At the same time, we are retiring people earlier and leaving them without sufficient funds to live above the poverty line, unable to enjoy-even when they know how-a largely unwanted unproductive period about to extend longer and longer. It simply does not make sense, morally or economically. With younger people staying in school longer, older people retiring sooner and living longer, a shrinking middle group is left produc tive and at work, to support itself, as well as all of those who are becoming unproductive, and to set aside resources for its own unproductive future. Some future. The answer to this nonsense surely is to end the lockstep that has a whole society marching through the first third of life in school, through a second shortening third of life at work, and finally through a lengthening third in the isolation and poverty that has become the all too prevalent condition of retirement. Work, education and leisure ought to be as streams that flow through all of a man's life, each broadening or contracting from time to time, to meet a man's needs as well as a society's demands, and to allow for individuality in lifestyle and a full life for as long as it is humanly possible. Our institutions of education and leisure are changing to accommodate this perspective, knowing that education is a lifelong process, that man can learn and grow as long as he can function, and that they are essential to his ability to function. Our institutions of work need to be a part of this reaffirmation of what we all know to be true, namely, that no two men age alike because no two men are alike, and that in a free society each man is entitled to be judged on the basis of his own performance. Mandatory retirement policies and age discrimination against the older worker have no place in that free society we have yet fully to achieve. ITEM 2. REPORT OF THE TASK FORCE ON OLDER WORKERS, CHICAGO MANPOWER PLANNING COUNCIL FOREWORD An advisory council on manpower planning, created by the Mayor's Office of Manpower, City of Chicago, met for the first time on April 17, 1974, to structure itself and form committees. The writer was assigned membership in the council's priorities committee. As a result of discussions by the committee, he was asked to head and form a task force to consider the problems of older workers and to make specific program recommendations to the council, prior to adoption of the 1976 manpower plan, time being insufficient to complete such a study thoughtfully before action on the 1975 plan. As chairman of the Task Force on Older Workers that was subsequently brought into being, I have the pleasure of transmitting the following report to the Chicago Manpower Planning Council, and its chairman, Samuel C. Bernstein. I know I express for the council and its members, as well as myself, thanks and appreciation to the task force members who met regularly and worked diligently, and whose concern for our older workers informed all of our deliberations. I am grateful also to Jacqueline Hickey and John Wyatt, members of my own staff of the Mayor's Office for Senior Citizens, for their preparation and support for the meetings of the task force, to Robert Haverkamp of the Mayor's Office of Manpower, for similar assistance, and particularly to the MOSC Program Development Division (Lillian Szabo, director) and Lester R. Klein, who heads its industrial gerontology unit, for the preparation of this report. ROBERT J. AHRENS, Director, Mayor's Office for Senior Citizens, and Chairman, Task Force on INTRODUCTION The Chicago Manpower Planning Council appointed a Task Force on Older Workers to review policies affecting the status of the older worker. This report includes a discussion of demographic data, problems and needs, current older worker programs, and recommendations for action. Of major concern is the anticipation that in the year 2000 there will be 87.1 million older Americans (45 and over) compared to 65 million today. With this growing number will come increasing demands for employment and economic security. Who is the older worker? PROBLEMS AND NEEDS The expression "older worker" is a term commonly applied to those persons in the labor market age 45 and over. Table 1 on the following page shows the labor force participation in the Chicago Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA). According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a sharp slowdown is expected in the growth of the labor force aged 45 to 64 years. These workers are expected to increase from 28.3 million in 1970 to 29.3 million in 1980, only one-fourth as great as the increase between 1960 and 1970. Their proportion of the total labor force will decline from 33 percent to about 29 percent. The slowdown in the growth of this group of workers is expected largely because of a sizable decline in the 45-54 years old population as a result of the relatively small number of births in the years of the Great Depression. Labor force participation rates for men aged 45-54 years are expected to decline slowly. Rates for women 55-64 are expected to continue to increase. Table 2 indicates that over 40 percent of the families in the Chicago SMSA, with the head age 45-65 have minor children. In addition, table 2 depicts two significant aspects about the education of the population age 45-64: large numbers have an insufficient education to meet current employment standards; conversely, a large number are college educated. Almost half of the heads of the families have less than 4 years of high school education. Slightly over 25 percent of the group have 8 years or less of elementary school education. On the other hand, approximately 25 percent have completed at least 1 year of college. What are the special needs of the older worker? For those persons age 45 and over, the primary need is a satisfactory income base which is required to fulfill commitments such as the following: (1) Mortgage obligations, (2) Support of children under 18. (3) Educational expenses for young adults. (4) Support of elderly parents. (5) Acquiring assets for financial independence in retirement. Although the needs of the age 45-plus population must be inferred from general census data and general knowledge about this population, specific data is available for Chicago's age 60-plus population. In the 1972 Chicago Needs Assessment Surveys of Older People and of the Vulnerable Elderly,' the problem areas, in order of priority by the elderly age 60-plus, were income, health care, police protection, housing, legislation, transportation. nutrition, employment, leisure time activities, and education. The vulnerable elderly are a subgroup of Chicago's noninstitutionalized elderly-those age 75 and over who either live alone or with another person aged 60 or over. One of the major problems confronting the older worker today is to maintain a satisfactory standard of living. For persons age 45-64, inflation makes it diffcult or impossible to meet their major commitments. For those 65-plus, food, rent, and utilities-items that constitute a much larger part of their fixed income than other income groups-have been among the most inflationary items. This statement is highlighted by statistics which show that 26.3 percent of Chicago's age 60 and over population and 44.1 percent of the vulnerable group require additional moneys for necessities. Two factors work in concert to exacerbate this dilemma: (1) The reluctance of employers to hire older workers. (2) The penalty on earnings (in excess of $2,520 per year) imposed by the social security legislation. Who are the people who want to work and why? Although the human needs of all older workers are similar, employment is the main source of income for those age 45-64; whereas, for those 65-plus employment may be considered as supplemental income. Application for employment with the Illinois State Employment Service is one reflection of the desire to work. In the first quarter of fiscal 1975, ISES registered 16,441 applicants 45 and over or 14.4 percent of the State total unemployment figure (113,450). Of the total of 16,441 applicants, 2,882 individuals, or 17.5 percent, were placed in jobs; 788 were given counseling service; 124 were enrolled in job training programs; and 223 were given other support services. In fiscal 1974 ISES registered 71,078 applicants 45 years and over, or 16.5 percent of the State total unemployed (431,507). Of this number 10,146 individuals. or 14.3 percent were placed in jobs, 4,200 were given counseling service, 493 were enrolled in job training programs and 635 were given other support services. Note the comparatively small number of applicants who received counseling, on-thejob training and other support services. In fiscal year 1974, the entire FederalState employment service placed 355,100 persons age 45 and over in jobs. Mature Temps, a division of the American Association of Retired Persons, a private employment service for older people in Chicago, reports placement of 545 people in 1974; 66 percent, or 360 persons, were 45-plus. Of the total, 50 percent were 65-plus, 19 percent 60-65, 10 percent 55-60, 7.6% 50-55, and 7.4% 45-50. In the Mayor's Office for Senior Citizens Chicago Needs Assessment Surveys, 11.1% of the general sample of people age 60 and over would have liked a job for pay. Of the vulnerable sample (age 75 and over), 3.2 percent would have liked such a job.* Under the sponsorship of the National Council on the Aging, Louis Harris and Associates has just completed a definitive study of people 65 plus, as well as the rest of the public age 18-64, concerning national attitudes on the elderly and aging. This study collated data from 4,254 in-person interviews. The sample of the 65 and over group is said to be the largest in any survey research project: 3,000 individuals in total-1,033 who are 65-69 years of age, 1,295 who are 70-79, and 469 who are 80 years of age and over. While the survey results are yet to be reported, Mr. Harris gave the following information from them in an October 1974 talk to a Detroit conference of the National Council on the Aging. In the area of employment, 18 percent of the 65 and over group is still part of the labor force: 3 percent are employed full time, 9 percent are employed 1 The Chicago Needs Assessment Surveys of Older People and the Vulnerable Elderly, Final Report, Mayor's Office for Senior Citizens, Chicago, March 1974. 2 Ibid., p. 15. 3 Ibid., p. 60. Ibid., p. 113. |