While a lot of the conversation regarding the 2024 presidential election is focused on the historically high ages of the two expected major party candidates, the aging U.S. workforce often faces doubts about their own abilities that are “crudely conflating old age with physical and cognitive capacity.”
This is according to a recent NextAvenue column co-written by two aging experts: Robert Espinoza, CEO at the National Skills Coalition and a fellow at the Brookings Institution; and Leanne Clark-Shirley, president and CEO of the American Society on Aging.
Since the first presidential debate roughly two weeks ago, discussions pairing age and fitness for the presidency have dominated the political landscape. But conflating these ideas of old age and capacity to perform required tasks of a job is “wrong,” the pair writes.
“Only a person’s medical team can offer that assessment, and age alone says nothing conclusive about one’s physical and mental health,” the pair wrote. “Further, to propose age limits for holding office with no consideration for individual differences is grossly ageist and discriminatory.”
On top of this, the conversations dominating the political sphere also serve to divert attention “from the more pressing concerns” facing older people, the authors state.
“Chief among them are the profound employment barriers facing older workers, a growing population that could help address a widespread labor shortage if our government properly supported them,” the column reads. “Yet these issues are glaringly absent from the election discourse.”
The 55-and-older population encompassed roughly 14% of the U.S. labor force in 2002, but that share is expected to reach 24% by 2032. On top of this, people 75 and older are the largest-growing segment of the workforce, according to data from the Pew Research Center.
“This trend is due to positive factors, such as healthier profiles and more age-friendly jobs, and negative factors, including more rigid retirement plans and policy changes that discourage early retirement,” the authors said. “Older workers personify the future of work, and let’s face it: most of us will age into this reality if we’re not there already, so it should feel personal.”
As workers grow older, they often face discrimination based on assumptions about their age. This can lead to older workers being passed over for advancement opportunities, with the assumption that “fresh thinking” is needed or that older workers are more expensive.
“Many older workers deal with all these factors and have always worked in low-wage jobs with limited benefits — as care workers, taxi drivers, food servers, grounds maintenance workers and many others, segregated into these occupations by decades, even centuries, of racially discriminatory policies,” the column explains. “They form the backbone of our economy and are essential to its success, yet they are egregiously neglected by government at all levels.”
