Are Older Nontraditional Workers Able to Find Health and Retirement Coverage?

Abstract

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What Jobs Do Employers Want Older Workers to Do?

“…For health insurance, the Affordable Care Act made individual plans available 3 This mix of wages-to-benefits may nevertheless be appropriate for those who just want to supplement their earnings in later working years after already accumulating retirement savings and health insurance from other sources. A recent paper looking at how older nontraditional workers -those whose jobs do not offer health and retirement benefits -acquire health insurance coverage finds that the vast majority are covered, mostly through spouses (Rutledge 2020). In particular, for workers over age 65, employer-sponsored health insurance may be less valuable given the availability of Medicare (Wettstein 2020).…”

Shoring Up Shortfalls: Women, Retirement, and the Growing GigSupp Economy

“…Workers in alternative and nontraditional work arrangements are typically ineligible for employerprovided retirement or health care benefits (U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2015; Rutledge, 2020;Rutledge & Wettstein, 2020;Applebaum et al, 2019, p. 21). More specifically, independent contractors are not permitted to participate in employer-sponsored plans that provide health care and pension coverage, and businesses rarely want to provide those fringe benefits to their part-time and temporary workers (see, e.g., Rutledge, 2020;Rutledge & Wettstein, 2020;Oranburg, 2018). Overall, contingent and self-employed workers are less likely to have a pension than traditional workers (PEW Charitable Trust, 2019a;PEW Charitable Trust, 2019b).…”