{"id":7195,"date":"2018-12-02T11:20:54","date_gmt":"2018-12-02T15:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=7195"},"modified":"2018-12-02T11:20:54","modified_gmt":"2018-12-02T15:20:54","slug":"the-economics-of-healthy-aging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=7195","title":{"rendered":"The Economics of Healthy Aging"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/a>I recently attended a Milken Institute Future of Health Summit panel in Washington, D.C. called\u00a0Race, Gender, and Work: The Economics of Healthy Aging<\/a><\/em>. The experts\u2019 insights whizzed across a range of topics from caregiving to investing and jobs, but there was one common thread: the critical financial issues facing women. I was especially struck by the particular challenges they noted for women of color and low-income women.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether you look at women through the lens of their labor force participation, pay equity, health participation or financial security, women are challenged to live the lives that are healthy, wealthy and secure, and to continue to stay in the workforce the way we need them to stay,\u201d said Patricia Milligan, a senior partner at the global consulting firm Mercer, who was the panel\u2019s moderator.<\/p>\n

Sobering Economic Landscape for Women<\/h3>\n

When you look at the economic landscape for women, the speakers made clear, it\u2019s pretty sobering.<\/p>\n

\"Debra<\/a>
Debra Whitman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Said Debra Whitman, AARP\u2019s chief public policy officer: \u201cWomen earn less per pay period, but they also are more likely to work part-time. They are more likely to leave the labor force not just to take care of their kids, but their parents and grandparents, so they are out of the labor force for 12 years on average.\u201d<\/p>\n

That means their Social Security checks are going to be lower than they would be otherwise, and if the women work part-time, they probably don\u2019t qualify for their employer\u2019s 401(k), Whitman added.<\/p>\n

Read on Forbes<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Surprises About Healthy Aging and Women<\/h3>\n

William Dow, an economist and the interim dean of the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, made two surprising points about women\u2019s health (physical and mental) that might surprise you.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a conundrum when we speak about women\u2019s health,\u201d Dow said. \u201cWomen live, on average, much longer than men. But the gap between men and women has actually been\u00a0declining<\/em>. Women\u2019s life expectancy is not growing as fast as men\u2019s has been. Partly that\u2019s due to the long arm of smoking decisions earlier on in the century, but we\u2019re also very concerned that this has to do with the changing nature of women\u2019s lives in our society today.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, he added, \u201cOne of the really interesting statistics, the canary in the coal mine, is that if we look at happiness statistics throughout the life course, what we are seeing is that earlier in the 20th<\/sup>century, women on average were happier than men. That is no longer true. It has sort of flipped.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Caregiving Financial Challenge<\/h3>\n

Dow posed the question: \u201cHow much of this has to do with the caregiving that the sandwich generation has been experiencing?\u201d Women, he noted, have been increasingly going into the labor force and fulfilling their career aspirations, but still doing just as much work around the house and caregiving. \u201cAnd this can create an environment of toxic stress,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Other panelists agreed, raising key concerns about caregiving as a singular financial and career challenge for women. (Next Avenue\u2019s Richard Eisenberg just\u00a0wrote\u00a0<\/a>about a groundbreaking caregiving initiative on the ballot in Maine on November 6 which, if it passes, could have helpful implications elsewhere.)<\/p>\n

\"Pat<\/a>
Pat Milligan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt is so difficult for me to get CEOs and boards to pay attention to care,\u201d Milligan said. \u201cThey\u2019ll pay attention to financial security. They\u2019ll pay attention to the workplace of the future, but when we try to get them to think about a philosophy on care for their employees, it is a challenge. I don\u2019t think they understand the ROI [return on investment] of caring about care.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cWhile we value women, supposedly, and we want to pay them equally, we do not value caregivers. If you look at what percentage of women around the world between 45 and 55 leave the workforce to provide caregiving, and you look at what is the present value of that lost income stream, from any economic perspective, it is really troubling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sarita<\/a>
Sarita Gupta<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sarita Gupta, executive director of Jobs With Justice and co-director of Caring Across Generations, said she knows all too well the squeeze that \u201ctoo many women in this country are experiencing.\u201d Said Gupta: \u201cThis is a very personal issue for me. I am a sandwich generation family caregiver and I work full-time. I care for a father with Alzheimer\u2019s and I have an 8-year-old daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lisa<\/a>
Lisa Margeson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lisa Margeson, managing director and head of retirement client experience and communications at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, offered this revelation from research conducted by Merrill Lynch and Age Wave on\u00a0widowhood<\/a>\u00a0and women\u2019s\u00a0financial wellness<\/a>: Women spend, on average, 48 percent of their working adult lives outside of the workforce (including time spent caring for children, aging parents and spouses) versus only 28 percent, on average, for men. As a result, due to career interruptions and lower pay, by retirement age, a woman will have saved $1,055,000 less than a man with a similar job who stayed continuously in the workforce.<\/p>\n

Breaking Things Down by Race<\/h3>\n

One of the big themes that emerged from the panel was that each woman faces a unique set of challenges, so there are no simple solutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt starts at birth,\u201d said Cara James, director of the Office of Minority Health, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. \u201cYour experience is based on where you sit. The experiences are very different for different people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milligan concurred, saying that all the generic data about women must be broken down to the particular cohort of women.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite one is pay equity. Many of you know we all use the statistic 76 cents to 77 cents on the dollar every woman makes for every man,\u201d she said. \u201cBut if you look at that through the lens of what do Hispanic women make? Fifty-six cents on the dollar. What do black women make? Sixty-four cents on the dollar. Every one of these topics is very complex. What are we doing to insure that that changes?\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitman noted that AARP recently found that age discrimination in the workplace is especially problematic for black women. When AARP surveyed workers over 45, it learned that although 64 percent of women over 45 surveyed said they\u2019d faced age discrimination or knew someone who had, that number jumped to three out of four for African American women.<\/p>\n

Whitman added that \u201cHispanic women actually live three years longer than white women, who live three years longer than African American women. That disparity also varies a lot by your income, your education and where you live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marriage is a huge factor when it comes to economic security for many women and here, too, there are important disparities by race.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfrican American women have significantly lower marriage rates than white women,\u201d James said. \u201cThat gap impacts your income, impacts your property, impacts what you see in retirement and it impacts your health outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Optimism and Advice<\/h3>\n

There was one chord of optimism at the panel, though.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>One of the most promising trends is the increasing educational attainment of women,\u201d Dow said. \u201cAs we take the longer view, women previously had much lower education and they were channeled into jobs that had different salary-income growth potential.\u201d Higher college attainment will naturally push more women into higher-paying jobs, Dow predicted. And we need to encourage men to take time off of work for caregiving, he suggested.<\/p>\n

Margeson offered one wish to help all women, regardless of age, race or income: \u201cWe\u2019ve got to strive at breaking the taboo around women talking about their personal finances,\u201d she said. Margeson\u2019s advice to the women in the audience: \u201cIf you\u2019re uncomfortable having those conversations,\u00a0seek<\/em>\u00a0a mentor. If you\u2019re comfortable having those conversations,\u00a0be<\/em>\u00a0a mentor.\u201d<\/p>\n

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By\u00a0Kerry Hannon<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Entrepreneurship and Personal Finance Expert<\/span><\/div>\n
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Kerry Hannon has covered personal finance, retirement and careers for The New York Times, Forbes, Money, U.S. News & World Report and USA Today, among other publications. She is the author of a dozen books including\u00a0Money Confidence: Really Smart Financial Moves for Newly Single Women<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0\u00a0Great Jobs for Everyone 50+: Finding Work That Keeps You Happy<\/em>\u00a0and Healthy…and Pays the Bills<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0Getting the Job You Want After 50<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0Love Your Job: The New Rules for Career Happiness\u00a0<\/a><\/em>and\u00a0What’s Next? Finding Your Passion and Your Dream Job in Your Forties, Fifties and Beyond<\/em><\/a>. Her website is\u00a0kerryhannon.com<\/a>. Follow her on Twitter\u00a0@kerryhannon<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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