In today’s economy, many older or semi-retired workers have chosen to prolong their days in the workforce with nontraditional jobs.
A nontraditional job refers to gig-economy jobs, on-call work, temporary positions, part-time slots and/or self-employment. These types of work, for the most part, do not come with employer-provided health insurance or a retirement savings plan, leaving those responsibilities to the nontraditional worker themselves.
There remains the question of whether workers gain from transitioning to nontraditional jobs to prolong their career, or whether a secure retirement depends on staying in traditional career employment.
A recent study conducted by Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research used replacement rate, or the ratio of a worker’s retirement income to their pre-retirement income, to measure retirement readiness among both traditional and nontraditional workers in their 60s. The study found that workers who are underprepared for retirement — and therefore choose to work past the age of 62 — see a clear improvement in their retirement readiness by ages 67 or 68.