Economic Trends,Politics, and Employment Policy for Older Workers

The rising interest among policymakers in developing employment policies for older persons can be traced to several sources. Two of these-concerns about the financing of retirement benefits and fears about possible future labor shortages-are shaping employment policies in ways that have undesirable consequences for older workers who are in poor health and who lack the economic resources to be able to afford retirement. In contrast, employment policies that operate by providing work incentives, rather than retirement disincentives, do not have discriminatory impacts on these subgroups of the older population.