Is Mandatory Retirement Age an Obsolete Concept?

There was a time when retirement meant limited activity — maybe a round of golf, a little puttering in the garden, an occasional game of bridge. There was no concept of working beyond “retirement age” and certainly no concept of reinventing yourself for another productive and fulfilling chapter of life.

All that has changed. But the concept of a mandatory retirement age remains. Paul Irving, chairman of the Milken Institute’s Center for the Future of Aging and editor of the thought-provoking book The Upside of Aging, has this to say:

“One-size-fits-all rules, be they around race or gender or age, are just wrong. They need to be gone. I think testing for capabilities, testing for capacity, testing for talent, ongoing monitoring of effectiveness — all of that is fair. And all of that should happen in a range of fields whether it is in construction work or education. But the notion that someone should be disqualified to work based solely on their age is wrong.”

What do you think about mandatory retirement age? Learn more here. [Hat tip to Ann Davis Garvin for the link.]