The Issue of Mandatory Retirement

The issue of mandatory retirement is complicated, not as easily resolved as it may first appear. Part of the issue has to do with whether there ought to be any age at which employees must retire; another is, given mandatory retirement, is there an appropriate age for it? The newest federal legislation addresses the issue by using age 70 (with some exceptions) as the earliest age at which employers may legitimately require their employees to retire. This paper investigates whether a problem actually exists with respect to a mandatory retirement age. It discusses evidence from a national survey dealing with hiring and firing practices and points out the need to distinguish between functional and chronological age. Some research and policy issues are discussed, and, finally, the relationship of mandatory retirement to the young in the work force is considered. The paper concludes by noting that the emerging issue will center on costs to the total economy of early retirement for a growing population whose life expectancy is continuing to rise and what the alternative solutions to those costs might be, including the alternative of reversing the trend toward early retirement.