Tradução

Second part of: It's Time to See Older Workers as an Asset
The “work longer” mindset temporeflects a number of fundamental factors that aren’t about to dissipate. Perhaps most important are the high education levels achieved by boomers, the shift toward more intellectually creative and less physically demanding work in many sectors of the economy, and the huge wave of women entering the workforce. The rewards to earning a paycheck longer rose starting in the early 1980s, when the gains of waiting to file for Social Security benefits increased from 3 percent annually to 8 percent (stopping at age 70), along with the decline of the defined benefit pension plan (in the private sector, at least). Money plays a role, too, with two bear markets and two recessions in less than a decade savaging savings. The median 401(k) and IRA balance for households approaching retirement is $120,000, roughly the same number as in 2007, according to the Federal Reserve’s recently released 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances.
An aging population may be inevitable. A decline in worker productivity with an aging labor force isn’t. That’s a lesson from an intriguing experiment by BMW (BMW) at its plant in Dingolfing, Germany. Management expected the average age of workers to increase from 39 years in 2007 to 47 years in 2017. To better understand the productivity implications, the luxury automaker modified an assembly line and staffed it with a mix of workers typical for 2017. The “pensioner’s assembly lines” productivity gained after BMW introduced 70 small—mostly ergonomic—changes, such as adding barbershop chairs so workers can perform tasks sitting down or standing up and orthopedic shoes for comfort. The total investment: $50,000. “But the 70 changes increased productivity by 7 percent in one year, bringing the line on a par with lines in which workers were, on average, younger,” according to a 2010 Harvard Business Review article, “How BMW Is Defusing the Demographic Time Bomb.” The