By PAUL NATINSKY
If it seems a quick look around a work setting reveals more silver locks and sensible shoes, it’s not an illusion. There really are more older workers bringing their myriad talents and decades of experience to into workspaces.
Almost 20 percent of people aged 65 years and older are working, up from about half that percentage 35 years ago, according to 2023 numbers from the Pew Research Center. In that same time frame, wages have almost doubled for this graying demographic.
There are a host of reasons for this spike in older workers, with some remaining in the workforce out of necessity and others continuing to work to maintain and forge social connections or a sense of purposefulness.
“This is a very timely topic because the reality is people are living longer. As people are living longer, they should do more with their lives rather than sitting around watching TV,” said Ron Acho, 79, an attorney who has practiced law in Metro Detroit for 51 years following a few years working for Ford Motor Company.
Acho has noticed that retired friends of his who are active mentally have stayed sharp, but has watched as others without activities to keep them going have deteriorated mentally and physically more quickly.
In some ways, Acho’s late work life is reflective of broader general trends in the older segment of the workforce. He is educated with at least a four-year college degree, spends much of his time working from home and enjoys a flexible schedule.
Jacob Bacall, a 69-year-old property developer, is another senior who abhors the idea of a purposeless tour through his golden years.
“I don’t see myself sitting home and watching TV. That’s not me, man,” he says, imagining himself eventually beginning to argue with friends and family.
Like many in the Chaldean community, Bacall’s roots are in the grocery business. He says he is a merchant with a merchant’s mentality. All of his life has been spent either going to school or working or both.
Continuing that cycle keeps Bacall surrounded by life, youth and opportunities, that in turn keep him stimulated in body and mind.
“To be honest with you, I have no plan to retire fully.” It’s hard for him to stay way, but he’d like to come in around 10 o’clock after having breakfast with his wife, work four or five hours, go for a walk and then spend time reading.
“That would be an ideal way of life for me,” he says.
He still works more hours than he wants to. He hates to see negligence and when he does it bothers the heck out of him.
WORK ITSELF HAS CHANGED
In addition to work moving increasingly out of the office and into people’s homes, the information age has made it less physical and more accessible to people as they age.
“More people are working at desk jobs that don’t require much physical labor,” Gal Wettstein, a senior research economist at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College told CNN business in 2024. “That contributes to people’s ability to work longer.”
“The reality is that a lot of people are not physical laborers,” said Acho. “You don’t see a lot of welders or concrete people work late. It’s too hard for them. A lot more service jobs, professional positions, reporters. Why would you stop? It’s not like you can’t do it.”
LIFESTYLE OR SURVIVAL?
For Acho and Bacall, working past typical retirement age is lifestyle choice, but for many grinding it out into their golden years is a matter of survival. Rising healthcare costs, later eligibility for Medicare benefits and the change from defined benefit retirement plans (pensions) that guarantee payment to less certain 401(k) plans have pushed some into working longer than they had planned.
On the bright side, people are living longer and more healthily than ever before. These trends help older workers remain in the workforce later, maximizing Social Security income and offsetting the cost of living they will incur when they can no longer work.
Fifty years ago, Acho represented workers in workers comp cases at the Rouge Industrial Complex. All of them died before age 65. With modern medicine and medications, people are living longer, he said. “People were 65 and they were old. Now, 65 is young and you see people (living into) their 90s and even 100s—which was unheard of.”
Acho tells the story of Mike George, a famous Chaldean who he says was, at one time, president of 24 companies and worked into his 80s. George said everyone was invited to his retirement party—it would be his funeral.
MODERN WORK ETHIC?
Like many Chaldeans born 70 or 80 years ago, Acho and Bacall did more with less in their younger years and had to work harder to get life’s basics. Saving money for two years to buy a television set, training for a job at one’s own expense or travelling out-of-country for a washer and dryer are not part of life’s experience that second- and third-generation Americans can relate to.
Even taking that into account, Bacall says he sees America getting fat and lazy. Today, more than ever. “You see three people doing the job of one person.”
Acho say he gets great deference from judges especially because he is older than they are.
At the beginning his firm—Cummings, McClorey, Davis & Acho—was only three people but highly regarded by judges. So he got great respect right off the bat.
All these years later firm still teaches attorneys to have a lot of integrity so that when they go into court, they are respected. “Not that they are always going to find in your favor, but at least they will believe you are being straight with them.”
Two things that are hard right now, he says, have nothing to do with age.
Number one, the number of attorneys. He was the fourth Chaldean lawyer in Metro Detroit—he says there are about 500 now. The other problem that is a sore spot with him is the lack of integrity and civility of some attorneys—particularly the younger attorneys.
He says informal agreements are later denied. There are attorneys who will later deny having had a conversation outlining a course of action.
The other thing is lack of civility. “As an officer of the court you are supposed to hold yourself up as someone honorable and decent. Some of these lawyers are foul-mouthed, abusive—just not polite. Unabashedly uncivil.”
When asked if he has any personal goals left, Acho laughs and says his goal is “to live as long as I can.” Still laughing, he cited an interview response from actor Tony Danza interview a few months ago:
“He turned 73 and the reporter asked what it was like being older. (Danza said), It’s like walking in a dangerous neighborhood and you’re afraid something bad’s gonna happen.”
Dark humor aside, attitude matters. Keeping busy, forming and maintaining social connections and retaining a sense of purpose are gaining attention as keys to aging well. Working at a job one enjoys go a long way toward this end.