[Senate Hearing 117-52]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                        S. Hrg. 117-52

                    A CHANGING WORKFORCE: SUPPORTING
                    OLDER WORKERS AMID THE COVID-19
                          PANDEMIC AND BEYOND

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                       SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS


                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                             WASHINGTON, DC

                               __________

                             APRIL 29, 2021

                               __________

                           Serial No. 117-02

         Printed for the use of the Special Committee on Aging
         
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]         


        Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
        
                               __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
45-308 PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2022                     
          
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                       SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING

              ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania, Chairman

KIRSTEN E. GILLIBRAND, New York      TIM SCOTT, South Carolina
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut      SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
ELIZABETH WARREN, Massachusetts      RICHARD BURR, North Carolina
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada                  MARCO RUBIO, Florida
MARK KELLY, Arizona                  MIKE BRAUN, Indiana
RAPHAEL WARNOCK, Georgia             RICK SCOTT, Florida
                                     MIKE LEE, Utah
                              ----------                              
                 Stacy Sanders, Majority Staff Director
                 Neri Martinez, Minority Staff Director
                        
                        
                        C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S

                              ----------                              

                                                                   Page

Opening Statement of Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr., Chairman......     1
Opening Statement of Senator Tim Scott, Ranking Member...........     2

                           PANEL OF WITNESSES

Elizabeth White, Aging Solutions Advocate and Author, Washington, 
  DC.............................................................     5
Elise Gould, Ph.D., Senior Economist, Economic Policy Institute, 
  Takoma Park, Maryland..........................................     6
Ramsey Alwin, President and Chief Executive Officer, National 
  Council on Aging, Washington, DC...............................     8
David Poston, President, Palmetto Synthetics, Kingstree, South 
  Carolina.......................................................     9

                                APPENDIX
                      Prepared Witness Statements

Elizabeth White, Aging Solutions Advocate and Author, Washington, 
  DC.............................................................    29
Elise Gould, Ph.D., Senior Economist, Economic Policy Institute, 
  Takoma Park, Maryland..........................................    32
Ramsey Alwin, President and Chief Executive Officer, National 
  Council on Aging, Washington, DC...............................    39
David Poston, President, Palmetto Synthetics, Kingstree, South 
  Carolina.......................................................    51

                        Questions for the Record

David Poston, President, Palmetto Synthetics, Kingstree, South 
  Carolina.......................................................    55

                  Additional Statements for the Record

Bonnie Marcus Statement, introduced to the Record by Senator 
  Robert P. Casey, Jr., Chairman.................................    59
AARP Statement submitted by Cristina Martin Firvida, Vice 
  President, Financial Security & Livable Communities, Government 
  Affairs........................................................    61
National Council on Aging........................................    71

 
                    A CHANGING WORKFORCE: SUPPORTING
                    OLDER WORKERS AMID THE COVID-19
                          PANDEMIC AND BEYOND

                              ----------                              


                        THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021

                                       U.S. Senate,
                                Special Committee on Aging,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:30 a.m., via 
Webex, Hon. Robert P. Casey, Jr., Chairman of the Committee, 
presiding.
    Present: Senators Casey, Gillibrand, Blumenthal, Rosen, 
Kelly, Warnock, Tim Scott, Collins, Braun, and Rick Scott.

                 OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR 
                 ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., CHAIRMAN

    The Chairman. The Senate Special Committee on Aging will 
come to order. Good morning, everyone.
    This hearing we are having today comes at a very critical 
time, as Congress discusses how to get American workers back on 
their feet and to pull our economy out of the ditch. Over the 
last year, workers in every occupation and in every corner of 
the country have felt the effects of the devastating economic 
recession created by COVID-19.
    The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating to every corner 
of the country and especially to workers. While the harm has 
not been contained to any one age group, the impact on older 
workers have been severe. As we all know, the threat posed by 
the virus is magnified for older adults, as individuals ages 50 
and over have accounted for 95 percent of all deaths. Ninety-
five percent of all deaths.
    Millions of older workers have had to make the impossible 
choice between continuing to go to work to pay their bills or 
staying home to protect their health and to protect their 
families. Many others simply saw their jobs disappear.
    For example in Pennsylvania, the 12-month rolling average 
unemployment rate of workers ages 55 and older increased from 
3.0 percent in February 2020 to 9.2 percent in February 2021. 
While the unemployment rate has declined since last summer, one 
million seven hundred thousand workers ages 55 and older are 
still unemployed nationwide.
    As we will hear from our witnesses today, unemployment 
numbers do not tell the whole story. Hundreds of thousands of 
older workers fell out of the workforce altogether, giving up 
on finding a job or being forced to retire early.
    Fortunately, we are beginning to see the light at the end 
of this very dark tunnel. The American Rescue Plan contained 
critical investments to defeat the virus and help families, 
including, just by way of example, an extension of expanded 
unemployment benefits and a $1,400 direct payment; funding to 
help ensure employers are keeping workers safe and healthy in 
the workplace; and, third, a historic investment in vaccine 
distribution. All of these are critical to helping older 
workers return to work safely.
    The American Rescue Plan was a huge step forward, because 
there is still much more we need to do to ``build back 
better,'' as President Biden has said. I believe we must pass 
the President's American Jobs Plan to make investments in our 
Nation's infrastructure that are long overdue. The investments 
in the American Jobs Plan will create millions of middle-class 
jobs, raise wages and help workers develop the skills that will 
power economic growth for years to come. Older workers will 
benefit enormously from this investment. As older workers are 
looking to return to work safely, it is also more important 
than ever that Congress dismantle barriers, the barriers that 
have long made it more difficult for them to succeed in the 
workplace.
    One of the most significant of these barriers is age 
discrimination. That is why I reintroduced my bipartisan 
Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act, Senate 
Bill 880, along with Senators Grassley, Leahy, and Collins. 
This bipartisan bill will strengthen age discrimination 
protections and make it easier for older workers to seek 
justice in court.
    In addition to that, another bipartisan bill I was proud to 
introduce yesterday with the Ranking Member as well as Senator 
Portman and Senator Cortez Masto. It is our Senior Care Act, 
which would allow seniors with disabilities to work while 
keeping essential Medicaid benefits. Today Ranking Member Scott 
and I are also sending a letter to the Department of Labor 
calling on the Department to specifically address the needs of 
older workers as our Nation recovers from the pandemic.
    As we build a better economy, we must work together to 
ensure that older workers are included and prioritized every 
step of the way. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses 
about these policies and others that will help guarantee that 
older workers help us lead the way to a stronger future.
    Before we begin, I want to remind Committee members and 
witnesses to please keep remarks and questions to five minutes. 
The countdown timer can be viewed alongside the other 
participant windows on Webex, as you can see. Following opening 
remarks, Senators will ask questions based on seniority, and I 
ask that members have their cameras turned on a few minutes 
prior to their questions.
    Ranking Member Scott, I am pleased to turn it over to you 
for your opening remarks.

                 OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR 
                   TIM SCOTT, RANKING MEMBER

    Senator Tim Scott. Thank you, Chairman Casey, for holding 
this really important hearing, and thank you to all the 
witnesses for joining us today. It is certainly a very 
important topic and one that I am becoming more and more 
acquainted with personally as I talk to so many friends and 
family members as well as constituents who are really engaged 
in this new economy and are excited about that as our seniors 
re-engage at a high level of entrepreneurship. Twenty-two 
million jobs were lost in March. Many states are still 
recovering. According to BLS, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 
our unemployment rate right now in South Carolina is about 5.2 
percent. It is below the national average. For our seniors, 
nationwide more than 10 million Americans ages 65 and older 
were employed, but by 2020 in July, we saw 1.1 million had lost 
their jobs. That is a major part of this epidemic that we are 
trying to stress the importance of re-engagement here during 
this hearing, and I thank Chairman Casey for doing such good 
work on bringing the focus back to the economics that so many 
seniors face going forward and the important work that we can 
do here today.
    The pandemic, however, did open a door for teleworking, and 
that could be great news for our senior population. Companies 
have realized the value of older workers as well. Michelin, who 
has its national headquarters in South Carolina, has 
initiatives for older workers, including wellness, training, 
and intergenerational mentoring and phased retirement.
    According to the SBA, almost 51 percent of small business 
owners are over the age of 50. One of those entrepreneurs is 
Veera Gaul, the owner of Oil & Vinegar in Greenville, South 
Carolina. Veera had a long and successful career teaching at a 
culinary institute before opening her own business, a culinary 
store. Veera and her husband are now proud owners and business 
leaders making major contributions to their community. Every 
single Senator should stop and embrace Veera's passion to 
pursue the dream. That is why I am introducing the Golden 
Entrepreneurship Act. It is focusing on folks like Veera so 
that we can help encourage and motivate more successful 
entrepreneurs who are in their golden years.
    The legislation provides new training opportunities for 
senior entrepreneurs. It requires SBA to track the number and 
the amount of loans provided to senior-owned businesses. 
Seniors also have tremendous opportunities in the gig economy. 
Scores of seniors work as independent contractors, seasonal 
workers, and freelancers, and a 2019 report by ADP Institute 
found that 30 percent of all contractors were 55 years or 
older. They participate in the gig economy in a very strong and 
powerful way. They enjoy incredible high levels of job 
satisfaction. South Carolina's own Theodosia, who supplements 
her retirement income by driving Uber, says that her 
flexibility and her independence that comes from being an 
independent contractor is really important to her.
    As Americans continue to work longer, we need to ensure 
that the Federal Government supports this workforce. That is 
why Chairman Casey and I--and he just alluded to it--have sent 
a bipartisan letter to the Department of Labor on behalf of 
older workers. We need to advance policies that ensure that 
these amazing opportunities exist for our older Americans. 
Proposals like the PRO Act will dramatically hike the minimum 
wage. Those two specific areas can actually reduce the 
likelihood of success for our older Americans. The PRO Act 
would be devastating to drivers like Theodosia who would lose 
that sense of independence as her status is reclassified.
    We should focus our time and energy on issues where we can 
come together at the same table. I ask my colleagues to join me 
as we work together on behalf of our seniors who are still in 
the workforce.
    Thank you, and I yield back.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Ranking Member Scott.
    Before I introduce three of our four witnesses, I want to 
acknowledge that earlier Senator Rick Scott was in the hearing. 
I want to acknowledge that he was present, as well as Senator 
Blumenthal and Senator Rosen. What I will try to do, as I 
mentioned earlier, because Senators are in and out because of 
other commitments of time, especially other hearings, many 
Senators have not just one other hearing but sometimes three 
all within the 9:30 to 11:30 window. We will acknowledge folks, 
and some will be able to stay and ask questions; some will just 
be able to appear and listen for part of the hearing.
    Let us go to our witnesses, and just by way of 
introduction, before we get to their testimony. First I am 
pleased to introduce Elizabeth White. Elizabeth is an author 
and an advocate for solutions benefiting older adults facing 
uncertain work and financial insecurity. She worked in the 
nonprofit sector for many years and is also an entrepreneur. 
She is the author of ``55, Underemployed, and Faking Normal,'' 
in which she shares her own experience with job loss and 
provides guidance to older workers facing similar hurdles. I 
want to thank Ms. White for being with us today and for sharing 
her expertise with the Committee.
    Our second witness is Dr. Elise Gould from the Economic 
Policy Institute, so-called EPI. Dr. Gould is an economist 
whose work focuses on labor market trends, wages, and poverty 
in the United States. She has examined how the COVID-19 
pandemic has affected the labor force and, in particular, older 
workers. I want to thank Dr. Gould for being with us today and 
for sharing her expertise with the Committee.
    Our third witness is Ramsey Alwin. Ramsey is from the 
National Council on Aging, known by the acronym NCOA. She is 
the president and CEO of NCOA and has previously held 
leadership positions at multiple organizations. Ms. Alwin, 
thank you for being with us today and for sharing your 
expertise.
    Finally, I will turn to Ranking Member Scott to introduce 
our fourth witness. Ranking Member Scott?
    Senator Tim Scott. Thank you, Chairman Casey. It is my 
pleasure to introduce today David Poston. David is the 
president and CEO of Palmetto Synthetics in Kingstree, South 
Carolina, and the vice chair of the National Textile 
Association. He is an entrepreneur, leader, and innovator, and 
I am proud of the work he is doing in my home state. David was 
a founding partner of Palmetto Synthetics, which has 
distinguished itself in the fiber industry by providing high-
quality plastic products. Notably, for the purposes of this 
hearing, his company employs a workforce of over 250 South 
Carolinians with an average age of over 50 years old. Way to 
go, David. I like that.
    David's testimony today is based on his experience as an 
entrepreneur and job creator. We will hear about how his 
manufacturing business has worked to hire, train, retain, and 
support older South Carolinians, especially during the COVID-19 
pandemic.
    Thank you, David, for being with us today, and thank you 
for being a living, breathing model of what it means to 
actually do what the goal of this hearing is. I appreciate it.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Ranking Member Scott.
    We will now turn to our witnesses. We will begin with 
Elizabeth White. You may begin your testimony.

  STATEMENT OF ELIZABETH WHITE, AGING SOLUTIONS ADVOCATE AND 
                     AUTHOR, WASHINGTON, DC

    Ms. White. Chairman Casey, Ranking Member Scott, and 
honorable Committee members, thank you so much for inviting me 
today.
    I want to speak to what happened to me during the Great 
Recession as an older worker, as I think it will speak to what 
many older workers are experiencing today under the pandemic.
    I was someone who was doing very well until I was not. I 
punched all the tickets: Harvard MBA, Master's in International 
Studies from Hopkins, undergraduate degree from Oberlin 
College. Until the Great Recession of 2008-09, I had a career 
that I loved. I landed my dream job at the World Bank at 29. I 
was recruited from among 5,000 applicants. They took two 
Americans. I was one of them. In my 40's, I became a retail 
entrepreneur and won the National Retail Federation's Small 
Retailer of the Year.
    When the Great Recession hit, I was working two long-term 
consultancies that put me solidly in the six figures. Both 
organizations retrenched, and I lost both jobs over a 6-month 
period, taking my income to zero. I was not worried initially 
given my experience and credentials. I had the kind of network 
here, I would hear about jobs before they were even posted. Now 
in my mid-50's, I was not getting the traction I was used to. 
The few assignments I got were small editing jobs, teaching at 
UDC, paying a fraction of what I was used to learning. Weeks 
turned into months, then years, depleting my savings.
    I started noticing friends in the same boat, former high 
earners barely making ends meet. At a low point, I wrote an 
essay describing what it is like to land here, to feel like you 
are looking through a window at a world that you are no longer 
part of. The essay, published by Next Avenue, made its way to 
the PBS Facebook page and went viral. Thousands of people 
responded with, ``Me, too,'' ``This is my husband,'' ``my 
sister,'' ``my colleague,'' ``my friend.'' ``How come we are 
not talking about this?
    I have the background to look at the data, and I was 
astonished by what I saw. I learned that the median retirement 
income--sorry, the median retirement savings of near-retirees 
55 to 64 is $60,000. I learned that more than half of workers 
in their 50's are getting pushed out of their long-term full-
time jobs, and that only 10 percent ever again get a job at 
that level and pay of the one they left. It is hard to believe 
that all these people just suddenly became incompetent.
    After my essay appeared, dozens of people started to write 
me their personal stories. We were all kind of looking for a 
way forward. There are lots of books on the retirement income 
crisis, but they are typically focused on how to avert this 
crisis for people who are in their 20's and 30's today. There 
was nothing for people who are living this crisis now.
    I wrote ``55, Underemployed, and Faking Normal'' to fill 
this void. The second edition was picked up by Simon & 
Schuster, and I started getting invited to speak. My TEDx on my 
book now has nearly two million views.
    In my travels, I met displaced factory workers in Martin, 
Tennessee, and aged-out senior executives in Cambridge, 
Massachusetts. Their stories were surprisingly the same: lost 
jobs, depleted savings, homes in foreclosure, and marriage on 
the rocks, shame too, fear, anger, the American dream upside 
down. Today they have to worry about their health, too, and 
there is something Congress can do to make sure older workers 
are not left behind in the recovery.
    You can fight age bias in the workplace by passing POWADA. 
You can make sure that the Jobs Act specifically addresses the 
needs of older workers. You can extend basic worker protections 
to gig workers, and you can support older entrepreneurs.
    Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I look forward to 
your questions.
    The Chairman. Ms. White, thank you for your testimony. We 
are grateful you are with us today.
    Dr. Gould, you may begin your testimony.

  STATEMENT OF ELISE GOULD, Ph.D., SENIOR ECONOMIST, ECONOMIC 
            POLICY INSTITUTE, TAKOMA PARK, MARYLAND

    Dr. Gould. Thank you, Chairman Casey, Ranking Member Scott, 
and members of the Committee, for the invitation to participate 
in today's important hearing on supporting older workers amid 
the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. My name is Elise Gould. I am 
a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a 
nonprofit nonpartisan think tank that analyzes the effects of 
U.S. economic policy on working families. Today I would like to 
outline the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on older 
workers, how it compares to the Great Recession, and how we can 
build a stronger, more equitable economy going forward.
    This morning, I have five points.
    One, the U.S. economy faced devastating job losses, a 
pandemic recession, and continues to face significant 
employment shortfalls.
    Two, older workers were not spared in this recession. 
Millions of older workers lost their jobs.
    Three, older workers lost employment in greater numbers in 
this recession than in the Great Recession.
    Four, older workers were hit further by the pandemic itself 
and were among the least likely to be able to work from the 
safety of their homes.
    Five, the economy requires continued assistance from 
policymakers to ensure that the economy continues, comes back 
strong, and the recovery provides greater economic security and 
opportunity for all workers, regardless of age, race, 
ethnicity, gender, educational attainment, and where they work.
    I will go back to my first point. While a solid 916,000 
jobs were added in March, the strongest job growth we have seen 
since the initial bounce-back faded last summer, the labor 
market is still down 8.4 million jobs from its pre-pandemic 
level in February 2020. In addition, thousands of jobs would 
have been added each month over the last year without the 
pandemic recession. If we count how many jobs would have been 
created if the recession had not hit, we are now short 11 
million jobs since February 2020. It could take more than a 
year to dig out of those total employment shortfalls.
    My second point: Older workers were far from spared in the 
COVID recession. Between March and April 2020, 5.7 million 
workers 55 and up lost their jobs. Older workers experienced a 
bit of a rebound last summer, but then lost ground through the 
fall. March 2021 was the first month since October 2020 that 
older workers saw positive gains in employment. Older workers 
are still down 2.1 million jobs since February 2020, and 
considering population growth over the last year, older workers 
are facing a job shortfall of over 2.7 million jobs.
    My third point: The labor market outcomes were far worse 
for older workers in this recession as compared to the Great 
Recession. In particular, if we look at women ages 55 to 64, 
they saw much larger employment drops in the most recent 
recession than in the prior one than what they saw in the Great 
Recession. This could be due in part to additional caregiving 
responsibilities. They may have left the labor force to care 
for elderly parents who left their nursing home or assisted 
living facility. They could have left the labor force to care 
for other ill family members or even to help take care of 
grandchildren when the schools shuttered.
    My fourth point is that over half a million or nearly 95 
percent of the deaths from COVID-19 were among those 55 years 
and older. It will be no surprise then that many older workers 
not only lost their jobs but opted out of the workforce for 
fears over their own health and safety. This may be 
particularly true for older workers of color who have been hit 
harder from both the health and economic aspects of the 
pandemic. These trends were exacerbated by the fact that older 
workers were less likely than many other age groups to be able 
to telework before the pandemic hit. Now only about one-fifth 
of the current workforce is teleworking. What that means is 
that nearly 80 percent of workers are physically going to work. 
Not only does that include many older workers, but it is likely 
that millions of younger workers who cannot telework may be 
putting older family members at risk by going to work 
themselves.
    I will conclude by saying that policymakers have a role in 
reversing these devastating trends. In order for the economy to 
grow back quickly and stronger than before, policymakers should 
make sure the recovery hits all corners of the labor market. 
This means putting significant investment in policies that meet 
the pressing social needs the COVID-19 pandemic made so visible 
and that lead to greater economic security and opportunity for 
workers, including, but not limited to, physical 
infrastructure, caregiving needs for young and old, paid leave, 
and expanded unemployment insurance.
    Thank you for this opportunity, and I look forward to your 
questions.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Dr. Gould.
    Ms. Alwin, you may begin your testimony. Thank you.

                   STATEMENT OF RAMSEY ALWIN,

             PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER,

           NATIONAL COUNCIL ON AGING, WASHINGTON, DC

    Ms. Alwin. Chairman Casey, Ranking Member Scott, and 
members of the Committee, thank you for this opportunity. At 
the National Council on Aging, we are guided by our equity 
promise that aging well should be a right, not a privilege. For 
millions of Americans, aging well means being able to work up 
to and beyond traditional retirement age.
    As longevity climbs and Americans struggle to save for 
retirement, work is essential to affording a longer life. This 
is especially true for older women and people of color who age 
into higher rates of poverty. Since 1968, NCOA has been a proud 
sponsor of the Department of Labor's Senior Community Service 
Employment Program, or SCSEP, which trains and places 
disadvantaged older adults into work. Today we provide SCSEP 
services in 11 states and Puerto Rico, including Georgia, New 
York, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. This has given us clear 
insight into the tremendous value of older workers.
    Over the past year, these older workers have felt the 
devastating impact of the pandemic on their employment status. 
As of March, over 1.7 million older workers remained 
unemployed. Between August and January, 1.1 million workers 
left the workforce entirely. These are older adults that opted 
out due to the frustrations and the struggles. This drop in 
employment among older workers was even greater among older 
workers of color, twice that experienced by whites.
    Older women were among those most likely to lose their job 
or leave the labor market. Older workers have struggled with 
long-term unemployment of 27 weeks or more at greater rates 
than their younger counterparts. Over half of jobless older 
adults in March were long-term unemployed. If we are not 
intentional about targeting our policy solutions, the economic 
impact of these job losses will position too many older adults 
to age into poverty. Today I would like to share three 
potential solutions.
    First, we must strengthen federal age discrimination 
protections. Ageism is the last socially acceptable form of 
discrimination in our society, and it remains stubbornly 
ingrained in the workplace. It is time to treat it like every 
other unlawful bias. Senator Casey's Protecting Older Workers 
Against Discrimination Act is a great start, and we applaud him 
and Senator Collins for the bipartisan effort.
    We also support legislation such as the Protect Older Job 
Applicants Act championed by Representative Sylvia Garcia. On 
top of prohibiting birth dates on job applications, we 
recommend banning questions related to graduation dates and 
salary history.
    Second, we need to expand job placement and training 
services. Older workers have been left behind by public 
workforce programs, which view them as too challenging for job 
training and placement, fail to recognize part-time and 
flexible work and measurable success, and lack the targeted 
assistance and wrap-around services older adults need. The 
exception is SCSEP, and we should ensure it receives 
significant investments to restore the erosion in funding over 
the past decade and enable the program to respond to the 
challenges of today.
    We know the program works. Participants who secure work 
earn more in their first year than the annual training costs, 
and seven in ten remain on the job a year later. Yet current 
appropriations are $60 million less than the funding nearly 
three decades ago. As such, SCSEP is currently serving far less 
than one percent of those eligible. At a minimum, Fiscal Year 
2022 appropriations should equal at least the $480 million 
approved in last year's reauthorization with bipartisan 
support. In proposals to expand and create new job training 
programs, older workers must be included. We applaud the 
President's call for a substantial investment in workforce 
development, and a recovery investment in SCSEP of at least 
$500 million should be included.
    Older workers should be explicitly listed as eligible and 
prioritized for expanded new workforce development programs. 
When addressing historic inequities certain populations face in 
accessing job training and placement opportunities, older 
adults cannot be left behind.
    Third, we must ensure equitable access to quality jobs. The 
Federal Work Opportunity Tax Credit rewards employers that hire 
individuals from specific groups who have faced significant 
barriers. NCOA endorsed prior legislation to expand WOTC to 
include low-income workers, and we believe it is needed again. 
We also endorse Senator Casey's Disability Employment Incentive 
Act, which would extend WOTC to individuals with disabilities.
    Quality job opportunities also means flexible work 
arrangements, so we look forward to working with Ranking Member 
Scott on his legislation to support older entrepreneurs. Of 
course, we are mindful of the many barriers individuals face in 
taking full advantage of entrepreneurship, gig, and flexible 
work, and for those arrangements to be available, we support 
wrap-around services, access to benefits, and income supports.
    In conclusion, we need increased federal leadership. We 
need an older workers bureau, housed at the Department of 
Labor, that could lead a focused effort across federal agencies 
to maximize older adults' workforce participation, and that 
would be good for older adults, employers, society, and our 
economy.
    As Mr. Hawkins, an Air Force veteran and successful SCSEP 
participant working again sums it up for us, ``I now live life 
to the fullest as compared to just existing.'' That is the 
power of work at every age.
    Thank you again, and I look forward to any questions you 
may have.
    The Chairman. Ms. Alwin, thanks very much.
    Finally, we conclude our witness testimony with Mr. Poston.

  STATEMENT OF DAVID POSTON, PRESIDENT, PALMETTO SYNTHETICS, 
                   KINGSTREE, SOUTH CAROLINA

    Mr. Poston. Thank you, Chairman Casey, Ranking Member 
Scott, and members of the Committee. My name is David Poston, 
and I am president of Palmetto Synthetics in Kingstree, South 
Carolina. We are a textile manufacturing company that produces 
specialty synthetic fibers for a wide variety of applications 
like automotive carpet, military uniforms, performance apparel, 
and a wide variety of industrial uses, and we ship that fiber 
all over the world.
    We started Palmetto Synthetics in 1998 with five employees 
in one 50,000-square-foot building with the goal of producing 
the highest-quality specialty fiber in the world, and it was a 
green field startup, like literally in a soybean field.
    Today we have 250 employees working in 375,000 square feet, 
and we produce more specialty fiber for a wider variety of 
applications than any other company in the world. We operate 24 
hours a day, seven days a week. I am blessed and thankful for 
our success, which is the result of our talented and dedicated 
employees. Today 50 percent of our production employees are 
over 50 years old, and 70 percent of our employees are over 40. 
Furthermore, 100 percent of our upper management is over the 
age of 50, as well as 90 percent of our middle management. We 
actually employ more managers in their 70's than in their 20's 
and 30's. We do this because we found, while tracking 
attendance statistics a few years ago, we noticed that 
employees over the age of 40 had much better attendance records 
than younger associates. Older employees were less often late; 
they did not leave before the end of their shift and were our 
most reliable workers. Since an employee who is late or absent 
has to be covered by a full-time person from a different shift, 
the teams with older employees translated to less overtime and 
higher-quality production. We also discovered how older workers 
were a valuable asset to mentor and set strong work examples 
for younger employees as we build a workforce for the future.
    Our production jobs are not strenuous. The majority of our 
employees are monitoring the control panels for our production 
lines. Without the jobs being physically taxing, we make an 
effort to recruit an older workforce to improve employee 
reliability and production.
    Over several years, as our workforce has aged, we continued 
to notice increased production and efficiency, so we actively 
recruit older production and management employees today.
    Like all other sectors of the economy, the American textile 
industry was especially hard hit by the pandemic. In the span 
of just a few weeks in March, we went from 100 percent capacity 
utilization to less than 15 percent. In the face of countless 
lost orders and idle production lines, though, we were able to 
retool our production line to help with the COVID response. We 
started producing fiber for COVID testing swabs and 
antimicrobial fibers for medical gowns.
    During this difficult period, we were able to keep 100 
percent of our employees on the payroll because of the PPP loan 
we received. I literally do not know where my company would be 
today without the lifeline we received from the PPP loan. It 
saved most if not all of our jobs. I want to thank Senator 
Scott for his leadership on this program to ensure that small 
businesses in this Nation like mine had the resources they 
needed to weather the storm.
    Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we implemented several social 
distancing practices on the production floor like mask 
requirements. We conducted temperature checks at the start of 
every shift to ensure our workers' health and safety.
    In 2020, we did have four seniors in management and 12 
senior manufacturing employees choose to retire. As the economy 
reopens, we will recruit older associates to replace those 
recent retirees.
    Hiring, training, and retaining older workers is the key to 
our successful and efficient workforce at Palmetto Synthetics. 
Because of modern technology, manufacturing and production jobs 
are no longer out of reach of older Americans. Meanwhile, more 
and more employers are discovering the unique advantages of 
older workers in the workforce to mentor younger workers, 
retain institutional knowledge, and increase reliability.
    Again, thank you, Chairman Casey, Ranking Member Scott, and 
the rest of the Committee, for allowing me to testify today, 
and I look forward to your questions.
    The Chairman. Mr. Poston, thanks very much for your 
testimony. We will move to questions. Before I do that, as I 
mentioned, some Senators will be in and out, and I just wanted 
to make sure that we acknowledge them when they have appeared. 
Senator Collins is with us. I see Senator Collins. Great to be 
with her. Senator Warnock as well.
    Let start with my round of questions, and I will try to 
follow my own guidance with regard to staying within my time. I 
wanted to start with Dr. Gould. Doctor, in your testimony, you 
described in detail how older workers have suffered as a result 
of the economic downturn, really a jobs crisis produced by the 
pandemic. Your testimony also made clear that while labor 
market conditions are improving, we still have a ways to go to 
erase the losses, the millions of jobs that were lost.
    I believe it is critical that we make the types of large-
scale investments in our Nation's infrastructure and workforce 
that the President has called for, and I think all of us would 
agree that inaction, doing nothing, is not an option. The scale 
of our response I believe needs to reflect the scale of the 
challenge before us.
    Dr. Gould, can you speak about the direct investments and 
infrastructure in the workforce, the benefits that we can 
derive from those investments? In particular, can you talk 
about how those investments could benefit older workers?
    Dr. Gould. Yes, thank you for your question, Senator. 
Absolutely, those investments in public services are of utmost 
importance to older workers, like all workers would benefit 
from a stronger infrastructure. Particular components of that 
infrastructure investment, like broadband, would 
disproportionately keep older workers safer as it enables them 
to work from the safety of their home. Those caregiving 
investments, a very important component, again, of our 
infrastructure, will help older workers as caregivers as well 
as older workers needing care themselves. Increasing labor 
standards in that caregiving infrastructure that I have seen as 
part of that legislation will raise wages and improve working 
conditions. Making sure that we encourage employers having to a 
neutral stance toward unionization efforts will also reap the 
benefits of a unionized workforce in the improved delivery of 
those services.
    We need to address the health and safety concerns head-on, 
making sure older workers are protected in their workplaces 
from COVID, meeting best practices for infectious disease 
standards, PPE and the like. This will provide vital 
protections to older workers. Those are some examples, I think.
    The Chairman. Thanks very much for your testimony and for 
your answer to that question.
    I am going to move next, before my time is up, to Ms. Alwin 
regarding a letter that I received from Bonnie Marcus, who is a 
Pennsylvanian. I am holding in my hand the letter she sent me, 
and I will, for formal purposes, introduce this letter to the 
record and hereby do so by reference to it.
    Bonnie Marcus is from Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. That is 
in the southeastern corner of our state. She worked for her 
employer for years doing highly skilled work. She became a 
victim of age discrimination and was fired along with several 
colleagues. She had to fight through the court system for years 
just to get justice. Here is what she said, in pertinent part, 
in her letter: ``It was so painful to be thrown away like 
something that was used up and not needed. I really hurt from 
that, and I felt a profound loneliness because so many of my 
thoughts centered around work and how to have my whole group be 
successful. Now that was gone.''
    Cases like this is why we introduced the legislation I 
referred to earlier, to fight back against age discrimination. 
Ms. Alwin, based upon the testimony you gave, can you speak 
about the different ways that age discrimination can both 
undermine older workers and, second, why it is critical that we 
strengthen these protections?
    Ms. Alwin. Well, thank you. Age discrimination can take 
many forms, and thank you for sharing that painful but all too 
universal story that older adults experience. Age 
discrimination can be less favorable treatment of older adults 
in the hiring processes and in employment, which can lead to 
involuntary retirement and inability to change jobs. It can 
lead to underemployment, the underutilization of workers, and 
longer periods of unemployment.
    Despite the 1967 Age Discrimination Employment Act, or 
ADEA, which forbids discrimination against those 40 and older, 
many individuals, nearly two-thirds of Americans age 45 and 
older, have either seen or experienced age discrimination in 
the workplace. According to the 2019 Ageism in the Workplace 
study, the number of age-related discrimination charges filed 
with employers to the EEOC by workers aged 65 and older have 
doubled from 1990 to 2017.
    It is imperative that we restore and reinforce age 
discrimination policies, and POWADA would be critical to that. 
POWADA would restore the age discrimination employment 
protections Congress initially intended. It has been over a 
decade since the Supreme Court decision undermined the ADEA and 
older workers. We should not have to wait any longer to see 
their rights restored. Thank you for your leadership in 
reintroducing--with the bipartisan support for POWADA and the 
President's call for stronger discrimination protections 
generally, we hope it is now finally time to restore age 
discrimination policies.
    The Chairman. Ms. Alwin, thanks for your testimony and the 
answers to questions.
    I will turn to Ranking Member Scott.
    Senator Tim Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I note that we 
have former Chairwoman Collins with us this morning. Senator 
Collins, if you would like to go next, I am happy to defer to 
you.
    I will go ahead and continue then. Mr. Poston, thank you 
for being with us this morning. You said some very interesting 
and, frankly, illuminating comments about the importance of 
having senior management that is a little more seasoned. I will 
say it that way. Can you speak to me about the vital role that 
experience in your management's team as well as some of the 
things that you mentioned was timeliness, attendance, overtime? 
All those things are benefits to the company, but it frankly 
benefits the end user, the person that you are marketing to, 
that they are in a better position to have a more competitive 
product at a more affordable price, more reasonable price, 
because your workforce is so synergistic. Is that an accurate 
depiction of why your focus on seniors in the workforce is so 
obvious?
    Mr. Poston. Yes, Senator, that is very accurate. Seniors 
are really our lifeblood. I think there is a shortage of 
manufacturing employees in all markets today, and if we relied 
on only younger people, I am not sure how any manufacturing 
company today could survive. We have to--this is maybe a 
different discussion, but we have to somehow educate the public 
that manufacturing jobs are not like manufacturing jobs in the 
1930 in a steel mill. You are not carrying 50-pound bags of 
concrete. This is jobs where you are monitoring control panels, 
and you can do it very, very late in life. In fact, you would 
probably get better at it because you are wiser.
    Again, having a predominantly senior workforce has 
certainly helped our efficiency and quality and on-time 
delivery, and, again, I am just not sure what we would do 
without that.
    Senator Tim Scott. Well, two things you said earlier, I do 
want to continue that discussion on the transformation that has 
happened in manufacturing. I have visited dozens of plants by 
this point, and most places I go, the environment is very 
clean, the environments are easy workplaces. You have AC. You 
could literally--the areas that they are working in, you look 
at this old model that we think is manufacturing, and you look 
at the reality of manufacturing, and as simple as it is, people 
think of a sweaty, hot place without normal AC ventilation. The 
truth is that is just ridiculous. If you have been to a recent 
manufacturing location, they are pristine clean. You could 
scramble eggs on the floor and be fine eating them. I mean 
literally that clean, and I have been all over the country, 
and, frankly, I have been stunned by the amazing transformation 
of the workplace.
    Let me ask you a question. Are other folks in the industry 
following your lead on our senior workforce or not?
    Mr. Poston. I think they almost have to be, Senator. I 
think with the lack of people who are willing to do 
manufacturing jobs, I think almost all companies have to lean 
on a senior workforce. Again, I do not know how any other 
company would not notice what we noticed, that their attendance 
is better and their work is better. I would think other 
manufacturing companies especially would have to be following 
that lead. I am not suggesting that we led it, but it was 
something that we certainly noticed.
    Senator Tim Scott. Absolutely. I want to make sure that 
people understand that my recommendation was not necessarily to 
scramble the eggs on the floor and try that. It was just a 
suggestion that things have gotten a lot better, just in case 
someone missed that.
    Mr. Poston. You would greatly upset our VP of manufacturing 
if you tried that.
    Senator Tim Scott. Ms. White, ``55, Underemployed, and 
Faking Normal,'' I love the title, frankly, and love your 
passion and your energy. The platforms today, the gig economy 
provides our seniors with the type of flexibility that they 
want, the type of certainty that they decide on. The workforce 
of the future will have the gig economy as the reality. Can you 
explain the benefit of using the platform economy for retired 
workers who might, frankly, want to stay active or make a 
little supplement to their retirement income and/or make it a 
full-time go?
    Ms. White. Thank you, Senator Scott. I think the gig 
economy is actually a mixed bag. You know, on the one hand, it 
does offer some flexibility. They do talk about, you know, 
workers. It is their entrepreneurial spirit that drives them 
there. Actually, I think what is happening--and this goes back 
to some of the points that were made earlier. If you have half 
of the people who are in their 50's pushed out of the job 
market, pushed out of their jobs, and then only 10 percent ever 
again get a job that pays at a level commensurate with the job 
they left, this means that these are people who then become 
desperate, and they are looking for any kind of job. I think 
that the person that we see sometimes bagging groceries at 
Whole Foods is not there because they want to be.
    Some people do, I think, enjoy the flexibility of gig work, 
but then gig work, it is often low pay, it is no benefits, it 
is no worker protections. I think that if it is here to stay--
and it is. Right now it is already a third of workers are what 
they call ``employer independent.'' They think over the next 
decade it is going to be half of the workers are going to be in 
the sharing economy, then I think we should give them the same 
protections as we give other workers. Thank you.
    Senator Tim Scott. Thank you, Ms. White. It certainly is 
important. I know that my time is out, so I will not prolong 
the discussion. I will note that the studies have reflected 
that about 90 percent of the gig workforce, those independent 
contractors, enjoy the flexibility, the certainty that they are 
setting for themselves as a part of the workforce. Obviously, 
there are folks who are doing the jobs because they have lost 
other income, other opportunities for employment. There is a 
mixed bag, and we will have to continue that discussion perhaps 
in the next round.
    Thanks so much.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Ranking Member Scott.
    As I acknowledged earlier, we have Senators that are in and 
out. Some are able to appear for a brief period of time. Others 
are able to stay for questions. We have got--many Senators have 
multiple hearings going on.
    I want to acknowledge that Senator Gillibrand was with us a 
little bit earlier, and so for the next two rounds of 
questions, we will go to Senator Kelly and then Senator 
Collins.
    Senator Kelly. Yes, so, Senator Casey, my understanding is 
that Ms. Alwin is on, too. I do not see everybody here.
    Ms. Alwin. Yes.
    Senator Kelly. Okay, great.
    Ms. Alwin. Hello, Senator.
    Senator Kelly. My first question is for Ms. Alwin. Good 
morning. Sorry I showed up a little bit later here. Ms. Alwin, 
overall the economy is beginning to recover. We had incredibly 
strong economic growth here this last quarter. The projection 
for the year is rather shockingly good. We are talking about 
older workers here. Nearly two million people age 55 and above 
are out of work across the country, and we know based on 
historical data that it is likely going to be harder for them 
to reenter the workforce than it will be for younger folks.
    Are there employer incentives or actions that we could take 
to encourage businesses to hire and retain older workers?
    Ms. Alwin. Well, thanks so much for asking, Senator. We 
have learned from the historical records on workforce trends 
and older adults, that they often face the longest spans of 
unemployment, and are getting rehired at half or a third of 
previous wages. We saw that in the Great Recession, and we have 
seen that over time. We are particularly concerned about what 
older Americans are facing now and do want to invest in 
strategies that would help best position them with the right 
job training and placement.
    Additionally, it is important to incentivize employers, and 
I talked about the WOTC as an opportunity that could be 
expanded to prioritize low-income older workers as a 
significant population that has been left behind, has 
experienced barriers. This could be a tax credit that employers 
would receive if they prioritize this population as well as 
other special populations. We think it is a win-win ultimately 
because, as you heard, older workers are incredible 
collaborators. Creativity and compassion and a range of 
uniquely human skills are brought to bear when you have an 
older worker in your workforce. Incentivizing with the Tax Code 
is a fabulous way to ensure older workers are not left behind.
    Senator Kelly. Well, thank you, Ms. Alwin.
    For Ms. White, Arizona has a State Plan on Aging, and this 
plan was informed by a series of focus groups of older 
individuals around the state. Computer literacy was brought up 
several times, and one respondent said that--and this is a 
quote--``Older citizens who must remain in the workforce 
require specific and often intensive training in computer 
usage, and computers are a huge stumbling block for many.'' I 
know we have probably all experienced that as we try to get our 
parents situated with technology.
    I have heard from Arizona seniors on my Seniors Advisory 
Group about the difficulties assessing online vaccine 
appointments. Nationwide, survey upon survey says that older 
workers do not feel they have the skills to keep up with the 
technology required in their jobs, and they are not being 
offered the training that they need.
    As technology advances, how do we make sure that these 
workers are not left behind?
    Ms. White. I think it is important to not lump all seniors 
into sort of one monolith, that we are talking about a 40-year 
age span and that we have seniors who are actually quite 
competent at technology or could rise to the occasion. We saw 
with remote work, for example, where in April of last year, 
like 75 percent of the workforce was working remotely, that 
seniors actually who were working were able to get onboard.
    I think it is really that what I saw in the Jobs Plan is 
where it is assumed that these programs will benefit seniors, 
whether it is in the area of the technology, whether it is 
training, whether it is investment, I think that in this early 
outline, older adults are not mentioned specifically. I saw one 
reference in there to--I think it was aging relatives was the 
only reference I saw in the Jobs Plan to older adults.
    I think that what is recommended in there will also serve 
older adults, but we have to--on the technology side, but we 
have to be very specifically targeted, and we have to be very 
specifically in the plan name. It is not enough to say that 
there is this technology program and assume in the jobs bill 
that older adults will be included.
    I think what is there is robust and muscular, and just to 
carve out so that we are also included. Thank you.
    Senator Kelly. Thank you, Ms. White, and thank you, Ms. 
Alwin. I appreciate your testimony.
    I yield back.
    The Chairman. Thanks, Senator Kelly.
    Before turning to Senator Collins, as the Ranking Member 
indicated, Senator Collins is the former Chair of the 
Committee, and I do want to thank her for her cosponsorship not 
just recently but over a number of years on the bill that 
several of us made reference to. Everything, as folks know in 
Washington, has some kind of acronym. This acronym is POWADA. 
If you do not know the acronym, it is the Protecting Older 
Workers Against Discrimination Act, Senate bill 880. Senator 
Collins, thanks very much, and we turn to you.
    Senator Collins. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I 
cannot pronounce the acronym, but I am wholeheartedly in favor 
of the bill and appreciate your leadership on it and am 
grateful to be the lead Republican with you as we try to get 
this bill enacted.
    I want to direct my question to Mr. Poston and Ms. Alwin 
this morning, but before I do so, Mr. Poston, I want to tell 
you that you gladdened my heart when you talked about the PPP 
loan and the difference that it made to you. I was one of the 
four chief architects of that bill. You are right that Senator 
Scott was a strong supporter as well as our Chairman, and I am 
just delighted to know that it was the lifeline that we 
intended for your employees.
    Let me turn to my question. I have two people who are very 
close to me, women who in their 50's--one was vice president of 
a bank, one was a vice president of a college--and both of them 
lost their jobs when a new president came in and essentially 
fired all of the senior management and brought in his own team, 
both at the college and at the bank. Each of these women had 
worked there for several years and had done very well, were in 
their mid-50's.
    What their experience in each case was that when they 
searched for new jobs, they could not find employers who were 
willing to hire them at anywhere close to the comparable 
salaries that they had previously received because they could 
hire younger people much more cheaply, even though they were 
getting a lesser skill level, a lesser judgment level.
    Mr. Poston, I am going to start with you. You clearly 
recognize that older workers bring reliability, judgment, and 
abilities that sometimes younger workers have not had the time 
to develop yet and that the tradeoff can clearly be worth it, 
even if you are paying them a little more. That is not the 
experience that a lot of people who lose their jobs in their 
50's find.
    How can we encourage employers to recognize, as you have, 
the advantages of hiring older workers?
    Mr. Poston. That is a really good question, Senator. I wish 
I had the answer. I actually do not understand why you would 
not look for an older workforce today. You know, I think 20 or 
30 years ago, when you started a job, you worked for that 
company for your whole career, so if you were 50 or 55 or 
older, a company might see you as too close to retirement age. 
Well, now we can hire a 55-year-old person; they may have 20 
more years in the workplace. We see it as a way to capitalize 
on that person's experience, and not only for the jobs we hire 
them for, but also to mentor a younger workforce.
    I am not really sure what the answer would be there, and it 
is certainly not something that I understand or that we do. I 
am not sure why you would shun--to me, being the same age, a 
55-year-old person is pretty young. I do not really quite 
understand it.
    Let me finish by saying again that I would not be sitting 
here today probably without that PPP loan.
    Senator Collins. That is great. Thank you.
    Mr. Poston. Again, I really, really appreciate that. It 
saved every one of my jobs. Thank you.
    Senator Collins. That is wonderful, and thank you for 
sharing your experience with older workers. I hope it inspires 
other employers.
    Ms. Alwin, do you have any thoughts on this issue?
    Ms. Alwin. Absolutely. Well, first and foremost, thank you 
for your leadership on POWADA. Enforcing age discrimination 
protections is critical, first and foremost. Also, I would say 
to employers step back and look at the overarching economy. The 
50-plus market, what we call the ``longevity economy,'' has a 
direct spend of $7.6 trillion annually. This is a market that 
is buying your products and services. To be in touch with their 
consumer desires, their pain points, you need a workforce 
reflective of your consumer. Tapping into that experience, 
understanding that value of experience, bringing it to bear on 
your offerings as a leader in industry is critical to your 
success. Including older workers in your workforce is truly a 
competitive advantage.
    Senator Collins. Great. Thank you so much.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Collins.
    I know we have some Senators that may be going back and 
forth, as I mentioned earlier, so what I will do now is I will 
start a second round of questions. I will begin. Ranking Member 
Scott may have questions as well. Then we will see where we are 
when other Senators are moving back and forth.
    I wanted to go back to Ms. White for a question, and I was 
particularly moved by your testimony as someone who had the 
experience you had and was able to take the time to write about 
it and to provide guidance to so many Americans who have 
experienced job loss and have been challenged in some of the 
ways that you outlined.
    I wanted to ask you about obviously the topic of age 
discrimination in the workplace that we have been talking about 
this morning, but also the need to make sure that all 
workplaces are welcoming of workers of all ages. In your 
written testimony, you talked about the need to tackle age bias 
in the workplace so older workers are not unfairly forced out 
of their jobs or, frankly, to ensure that they are not denied 
opportunities that they would deserve. This is critically 
important that we strengthen both legal protections for older 
workers, but also make clear to employers that no amount of age 
discrimination is acceptable.
    I would ask you, Ms. White, if you can tell us a little 
more about why you think it is important to both strengthen the 
protections for older workers but also the importance of 
employers not just refraining from discriminating, but fully 
embracing, as Mr. Poston and others have, fully embracing what 
older workers bring to the workplace, the value, the benefit of 
those workers in various workplaces.
    Ms. White. Thank you, Senator Casey. I think one thing to 
think about is today the worker who is 55 years and older is 
already a quarter of the workforce, and over the next decade, 
they are going to be a third of the workforce  it is not an 
insignificant group. Ramsey has already talked about the $8.3 
trillion that the over-50 market is spending, and we have a 
situation where if people who are pushed out of the workforce 
are not able to again get jobs, as somebody said to me, ``I do 
not have to trade my 4-year-old Chevy in every year. I do not 
have to shop at Starbucks to get a coffee. I can take it in my 
thermos.' At this point about how much we are spending as we 
are significant driver of the economy I think is one point.
    The other point is to start to look at the potential 
pressure on public finances. Teresa Ghilarducci, labor 
economist and retirement security expert, estimates that with 
the way we are going, half of people who are now 55, by the 
time they get to be 65, are going to be living in poverty or 
near poverty conditions. This is not a pesky little Boomer 
problem. We do not have even for Generation-X or for 
Millennials, they do not have pensions. They are facing 
uncertain work. You know, they are facing escalating costs in 
housing, health care, and all the rest of it. Boomers, we are 
just the first who are living longer, but this is going to be 
the future. We are the first generation to live as long as we 
are, then we are, you know, at this place where we do not have 
rules yet. We do not have supportive legislation yet. We do not 
have many role models.
    My fellow witness here from South Carolina, I am so excited 
about the company, because this is a role model. I would like 
to see the Federal Government use its purchasing power when you 
are contracting with companies to actually start to look at how 
are they doing in terms of retaining and recruiting and 
advancing older workers. What kind of investment, how are they 
leveraging mature talent? That as you are deciding--as a 
country as we are deciding who we are going to do business 
with, that will be one of the things that we also consider.
    I am less interested at this point in the laggard 
companies. I would rather get behind a company like this in 
South Carolina, have other companies understand what they are 
doing, convening companies that are on the forward edge like 
this of hiring older workers, understand the value, how do you 
include incentives, you know, so maybe there are wage offsets, 
et cetera, to help the companies that are already there to do 
more. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thanks very much. With the Ranking Member's 
indulgence, I will lunge back into round one questions. Senator 
Braun is here. Senator Braun?
    Senator Braun. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    COVID has, I think, give us a big wakeup call about another 
looming issue that drives our trillion dollar deficits 
annually, and I think if there is a silver lining, it is 
forcing us to look at many things that we avoid here.
    I am interested--and try to keep your answers to maybe a 
minute or just a little more, because I would like to hear from 
each witness. The big elephant in the room is Medicare, its 
high cost, and Social Security. For anybody that is a Boomer, 
retired, nearing retirement, the program is in jeopardy. The 
Medicare Trust Fund I think gets completely depleted now in 
5\1/2\ years. It is 2031 or 2032 for Social Security.
    I am going to ask each one of you, because the variables 
are fairly simple, it is just tough. To keep Social Security 
solvent, do you think we need to raise taxes, raise the 
retirement age, or means test? I would love to hear your 
opinions because if we do not get the political will soon to 
start doing something about it, it is going to be here before 
we know it, and actuarially we have known it for a long time. 
Raise taxes, raise the retirement age, or means test? Whoever 
wants to jump in on that doozy first, go ahead.
    Ms. White. It is such a doozy that I am going to sit it out 
because I would be--I would actually be--I would be 
speculating, and I do not want that on the record. I will come 
back to you. Thank you.
    Senator Braun. I respect that. Anyone else?
    Dr. Gould. Sure, I would be happy to answer your question. 
Thank you, Senator. As we know, Social Security and Medicare 
are essential lifelines for older workers. We have already 
heard statistics discussed about how many may be in poverty, 
and Social Security is one of the No. 1 poverty reducers we 
have in this country. Maybe as not a Social Security expert 
but, rather, a workforce expert, I would say that maybe one 
other option I would put on your list is to increase the income 
that provides the payroll taxes into that system. As we have 
had growing wage inequality, a smaller share of wages are 
actually provided in that payroll tax. We could go the other 
direction and increase the solvency in that way.
    Senator Braun. That would be in the category of raising 
taxes, and I think that is a valid subset of that variable as 
well. Thank you.
    Anyone else?
    Ms. Alwin. Senator, those are two very important social 
insurance programs for older adults, and we really believe in 
strengthening those programs. A piece of the puzzle is making 
sure people can work as long as they want and need to so that 
they can delay claiming that Social Security benefit. For each 
year they delay increases their benefit will increase by eight-
percent, but it also means they continue to contribute those 
payroll taxes that can help us with the solvency. Addressing 
these challenges in terms of older workers that want and need 
to continue to work and get that employer-sponsored insurance 
when it comes to health care can also help in terms of delaying 
enrollment in Medicare.
    You know, there was an interesting analysis by the 
Commonwealth Fund last October. The cost of public programs and 
to older adults themselves when job losses are premature and 
retirement starts are significant. The analysis demonstrates if 
half of the pandemic-related job losses among older workers, 
roughly half a million, are among those with employer-sponsored 
insurance, and they have to transition over to Medicare, it 
could increase Medicare spending by more than $4 billion in a 
single year. It just reinforces the need for today's 
conversation and leadership at the federal level to help the 
older workers that want and need to continue to work to do so, 
for their own retirement security and for the solvency of our 
programs.
    Senator Braun. Thank you. Well said. I think there is one 
other potential opinion out there. Go ahead.
    Mr. Poston. I am not sure--that was pretty tough to follow 
there. I think I would agree. I am not sure I have the answer, 
and I certainly am not going to masquerade as an economist.
    Senator Braun. Well, and I think that would be an answer 
that many would have because it is so complicated.
    I am going to end with this: Medicare is the biggest 
driver, and I am probably the most vocal Senator on trying to 
reform health care in general. We need the help of retirement 
groups to help individuals like me that have made it work in 
the private sector by finding transparency, getting your 
employees engaged in their own well-being so when they get to 
retirement age, they can enjoy it and be healthy. I would love 
to continue the conversation with anybody that is interested. I 
did that 13 years ago, and when I resigned as CEO and CFO of my 
company, and still these two years have not had a premium 
increase. Transparency, competition, getting rid of the 
barriers to entry and getting health care consumers engaged in 
their own well-being helps Government pay for health care and 
the private sector. I would love to engage with anybody further 
if you are interested in that topic.
    Good talking to you today.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Braun, and I will turn 
back to Ranking Member Scott. I know that Senator Warnock has 
appeared in the hearing, was here earlier, and as I said, 
Senators are juggling. Unless Senator Warnock has a question, I 
will turn to Ranking Member Scott.
    Senator Tim Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I see Senator 
Warnock. I assume he does not have questions at this point.
    Ms. White, you wrote in your book that the shared economy 
offers us plus-50 workers opportunities to supplement our 
incomes by renting out our assets and not just our homes and 
cars but also our time skills, accumulated knowledge and 
experiences from your book that I enjoyed reading. Can you just 
expound upon the importance of having seniors re-engage in the 
economy and/or supplement income by figuring out their place in 
the marketplace, especially from a platform perspective?
    Ms. White. Thank you, Senator Scott. One of the things I 
wanted to do in my book was to offer older adults options, and 
I definitely think that the gig economy is one option. I sort 
of look at it as how do you create an interesting casserole of 
work. I have a number of friends, for example, who are empty-
nesters and who are renting a room in their home, and this is a 
way that they are making money. What has happened now with the 
pandemic, they do not want all those strangers in their house, 
and so that as an income avenue disappeared.
    I see that the gig economy is here to stay. I think what we 
need to do is just make sure that it offers the same kind of 
worker protections as other work. It is not about like making 
it go away. It is not going away. If you--you know, right now 
some of them--Uber, I know, and I think it was Lyft as well, 
lobbied for their workers to not get the pandemic unemployment. 
Those kinds of things that I think are not actually worker 
friendly. I think the narrative about the gig work where they 
talk about, you know, it is for your entrepreneurial spirit, et 
cetera, is a little bit of a marketing game. Since it is going 
to be half the economy's jobs over the next decade, let us make 
it work for everybody. Thank you.
    Senator Tim Scott. Yes, ma'am. I will note that one of the 
beauties of the pandemic--there are not many beauties in a 
pandemic, but one of the beauties in the pandemic was forcing 
us to reevaluate and then recalibrate unemployment for those 
folks who are 1099 and independent contractors. Fortunately, 
because of the fact that the pandemic was not brought on by any 
company or any employee, we changed the way that we saw 
unemployment and did include those Uber drivers and all the 
1099 independent contractors. Something else you say in your 
book that I think actually speaks to that point as it relates 
to funding and bridging toward retirement is you may be able to 
piece together enough income to put off filing for early Social 
Security and avoiding reducing your ultimate benefit. One of 
the points that I like in that comment is the importance 
perhaps, Chairman, for a future hearing is around income 
insecurity as well as the importance of focusing on the buildup 
in your 401(k). I know that in South Carolina and around the 
country, it is not uncommon for someone to have one year of 
income in their retirement accountable, and one year of income 
simply will not make 15 to 20 years in retirement comfortable, 
and one of the reasons why I really appreciate Ms. White's 
comments that I quoted from there is because of the importance 
of us focusing on the importance of financial literacy, 
especially in the golden years, and perhaps even the necessity 
of preplanning in the 40's and 50's to help us to prevent too 
many folks with too few dollars in their retirement accounts. I 
am sure we will have an opportunity to have a discussion about 
that, but I think Ms. White's quote reinforces the fact that 
there are too many folks getting closer to retirement who have 
to make a strong and tough decision about perhaps taking Social 
Security earlier because they need the income as opposed to 
being able to delay that and getting a full benefit.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the extra round of questions, 
and I look forward to sticking around for another one.
    The Chairman. Ranking Member Scott, thanks very much.
    I was going to move--based upon our Senators now, I was 
going to move to close unless, Ranking Member Scott, you had 
additional questions.
    Senator Tim Scott. No, sir. You go right ahead.
    Thank you very much.
    The Chairman. Thank you, and I want to thank our witnesses 
for both your testimony and your insights today and for 
appearing at this hearing. We know that every corner of our 
country has been touched by this terrible pandemic and every 
family has been affected in some way. We cannot leave older 
workers behind as the economy recovers. Indeed, these workers 
must play a central role in driving it forward, and many of you 
provided insight and testimony about the value of older workers 
today in our economy.
    The American Rescue Plan made some great strides toward 
ensuring that all workers have access to a vaccine and that 
they can return to a safe workplace. Now I believe Congress 
should enact the American Jobs Plan to spur economic growth and 
create millions of good-paying jobs that benefit all Americans.
    We also have to remove the obstacles that have long stood 
in the way of workers, and one of those big obstacles, one of 
those big barriers, of course, is discrimination, age 
discrimination. That is why we need to pass the Protecting 
Older Workers Against Discrimination Act without delay. It is 
bipartisan, and I am grateful for the support that we have.
    There is much work to do, but I believe working together we 
can meet the moment and protect older workers. I look forward 
to the continued work of the Committee, and I will turn to 
Ranking Member Scott for his closing remarks.
    Senator Tim Scott. Thank you, Chairman, and thank you to 
all the witnesses for investing your time and your expertise in 
this hearing. We as a Nation benefit when people stand up and 
take their place in leadership, and certainly we have seen four 
really strong individuals participate in this process today 
during the hearing. I would like to give a shout-out to Mr. 
Poston and, of course, he being a home-state guy, it is one of 
the reasons why I am so thankful that he is articulate and 
clear and consistent with the philosophy that our seniors are 
where some of the hidden gems, some of the hidden jewels are in 
the workforce. More importantly, as the employer sitting here 
amongst the panel, he is proving that it can be done 
successfully and effectively and, frankly, it actually helps 
the bottom line and helps his customers. Thank you for your 
participation in the hearing.
    To all of the other witnesses, I really enjoyed and learned 
during the earlier part of the hearing. While one of you was 
giving your opening comments, I thought to myself and I was 
telling my staff in the room, these folks are really smart, 
very engaging, and powerful. Being a part of this Committee is 
highlighted by the number of people who are passionate about 
aging gracefully and being included in the most important 
workforce in all of the world. I thank you for bringing your 
expertise to bear on the issues that we focused on.
    I will say that many of the legislative priorities from our 
good friends--I sincerely think of Chairman Casey as a friend--
are really focused on making the world and work better. I would 
disagree, perhaps even vehemently, on the outcome of those 
legislative priorities because I think it would actually harm 
our workforce more than help our workforce, but I do not 
question the intentions. I certainly am thankful that we live 
in a country where we can actually have a civil debate, have 
civil discourse around those priorities and issues that face 
our Nation and the future of this Nation, and I look forward to 
continuing to be a productive member of this Committee.
    I want to thank all the Committee members for participating 
in some form or fashion. I know that Senator Lee provided 
questions for the record. That is very helpful. I look forward 
to seeing the response from the witnesses.
    With that, Mr. Chairman, I am going to do what rarely 
happens and return my time.
    The Chairman. Ranking Member Scott, thanks very much. I 
want to thank again our witnesses, and the comments of the 
Ranking Member about our witnesses were entirely appropriate 
about how much they contribute not just to the hearing but to 
the larger debate about how we help older workers.
    For the record, I want to say that if any Senator has 
additional questions for the witnesses or statements to be 
added, the hearing record will be kept open for seven days, 
until next Thursday, May 6th.
    Thank you all for participating in today's hearing.
    This concludes our hearing.
    [Whereupon, at 10:53 a.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
     
=======================================================================


                                APPENDIX
   
=======================================================================


                      Prepared Witness Statements

=======================================================================
     

  Prepared Statement of Elizabeth White, Aging Solutions Advocate and 
                         Author, Washington, DC

    Chairman Casey, Ranking Member Scott and honorable 
Committee Members, thank you for inviting me to speak today. My 
name is Elizabeth White. I am 67 years old and live in 
Washington, DC. I am someone who was doing really well until I 
wasn't. I have a Harvard MBA, a master's in international 
studies from Johns Hopkins, and an undergraduate degree from 
Oberlin College.
    Until the Great Recession of 2008 to 2009, I'd had a good 
run in a career I loved. At 29, I landed my dream job at the 
World Bank. In my early forties, I became a retail entrepreneur 
and later a senior non-profit executive and consultant.
    When the Great Recession hit, I was working two long-term 
consultancies that put me solidly in the six figures. In the 
downturn, both organizations retrenched, and I lost both jobs 
within six months, taking my income to zero. I was not worried 
initially given my background and contacts. I was part of a 
robust network and accustomed to hearing about jobs before they 
were posted. Something was different this time. In my mid-
fifties, I was not getting the traction I was used to; my phone 
was not ringing.
    My bout of unemployment/underemployment dragged on with 
weeks turning into months. The assignments I managed to get 
paid a fraction of what I was used to earning. I had used a 
chunk of my savings in my retail business and, now that I was 
jobless, I was running out of money and scared. I noticed 
friends my age, also former high earners, in the same boat. At 
a particularly low point, I wrote an essay describing what it 
felt like to land here--55, underemployed, and faking normal--
pretending to be okay when I wasn't.
    My essay made its way on to the PBS Facebook page where it 
went viral with thousands of people responding, ``me too.'' 
What was happening to me was happening to husbands, wives, 
brothers, sisters and friends. Many expressed gratitude that 
someone was finally shining a light on it.
    I was astonished to hear from so many people. I have the 
background to look at the data. I thought my case was an 
outlier situation but learned that I was not alone--by a long 
shot. Research showed millions of Americans in their fifties 
being pushed/aged out of the workforce. Most, 90 percent, never 
recovered financially.
    When looking for guidance and advice on a way forward, I 
found many books on the retirement income crisis, but mainly 
written for the trade. I couldn't find what I was looking for--
a survival guide written for people actually living the crisis 
now. My self-published book sought to fill that void and was 
later picked up by Simon and Schuster. As people learned about 
my work I was invited to speak at conferences and other events. 
A TEDx talk I gave now has nearly two million views.
    Having these opportunities to connect with other older 
workers going through similar struggles gave me perspective on 
the scale of the challenge. Over the past year, millions of 
older workers have gone through experiences during the economic 
crisis created by the COVID-19 virus that look exactly like 
what I went through. Many lost jobs, lost savings and are 
struggling to find work that pays even close to what they 
earned before. On top of that, they have also had to worry 
about their health and the health of their families.
    There are a number of policies that policymakers should 
consider to help these older workers and ensure that they are 
not left behind in our economic recovery.

Actions Congress Can Take:

Pass the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act 
(POWADA) Into Law

    Research tells us that over half of working adults in their 
fifties will lose their long-term, full-time positions 
involuntarily. Only 10 percent will ever find replacement jobs 
at the level and pay of the career jobs they left. All these 
people did not suddenly become incompetent. Workplace age 
discrimination is real and rampant.
    Too often to survive, displaced older workers end up taking 
low-wage, part-time, or gig economy type jobs to scrape by, 
wreaking havoc on their finances and prospects for a secure 
future. In an interview with MarketWatch, Teresa Ghilarducci, a 
labor economist and nationally recognized expert on retirement 
security, estimated that ``about 50 percent of workers over the 
age of 55 will be poor or near-poor adults when they reach 
65.''
    Passage of POWADA would send a powerful message that the 
Congress takes seriously the hard evidence and anecdotes that 
age discrimination is a major factor in the long-term 
unemployment of older workers and is prepared to do something 
about it.

Ensure that the needs of older workers are specifically 
addressed in The American Jobs Plan

    The American Jobs Plan is a bold proposal that would invest 
in multiple sectors of the economy to stimulate economic growth 
and create jobs. Emphasized in the outline of the plan is the 
need to direct investment toward individuals and communities 
who would most benefit, and to ensure that nobody is left 
behind. As Congress works to fill in that outline, we must 
ensure that older Americans are included and that the unique 
challenges they face are directly addressed. In the initial 
high-level outline of the plan, older adults are mentioned as 
``aging relatives'' in the section on the care economy, but we 
need to go beyond that. Lawmakers have an opportunity to create 
policy that will be inclusive of America's older adults, and 
they must take it.
    Here is what I would like to see:
    That Congress, when it crafts the legislation to implement 
the American Jobs Plan, undertakes the deep review and analysis 
required to ensure that the needs of older adults--both those 
who require care and support and those who can and still need/
want to work and contribute--are fully integrated into the 
policy.
    We know that everyday ageism renders older adults invisible 
and dispensable. This is why strong communication, oversight, 
and incentives will be needed to ensure that employers and 
employment support service providers prioritize the needs of 
older workers as much as younger ones. This is also why it's 
important that policies be both targeted and tailored to ensure 
that workers age fifty and older get access to the proposed 
training and good quality jobs.
    On the subject of jobs, please consider older job seekers 
and the role of gig work in the future legislation. Many older 
adults facing a ``don't want you job market'' are testing out 
these ``gig'' jobs. A 2015 study commissioned by Uber, found 
that it had more drivers over fifty than under thirty. Airbnb 
reports that one in four hosts in the United States are over 
the age of fifty and 13 percent of hosts are over the age of 
sixty. While these freelance type jobs may offer some 
flexibility, many provide grossly inadequate pay, no benefits 
and no labor protections like minimum wage, overtime, and 
workers compensation. ``Entrepreneurial spirit'' may call some 
older workers to the gig economy, but many take these jobs 
because they have no other options. If gig work is here to 
stay, it is time it provides the same protections under the law 
as other work.
    Let's also ensure that the legislation's proposed 
investments in research and development include assistive 
technologies to help older adults with age-related physical 
limitations succeed in the workplace.
    let's ensure that dollars going to help entrepreneurs, 
small business incubators and innovation hubs also benefit 
older entrepreneurs. According to Kaufman Foundation about a 
quarter (25.5 percent) of all new entrepreneurs are between 55 
and 64. While many are ``necessity'' entrepreneurs, some are 
high potential growth businesses too--ideal for the small 
business incubators and innovations hubs proposed in the plan. 
In fact, a study by researchers at Northwestern, MIT, and the 
US Census Bureau looked at 2.7 million business owners who 
launched companies between 2007 and 2014 and found that a 50 
year old is nearly twice as likely to start a top or very 
successful business as someone two decades younger.
    Finally, I would like to see the government leverage its 
purchasing power to fight age-based discrimination in the 
workplace. Workplace age discrimination, now compounded by the 
health risks of COVID-19, is forcing millions of older 
Americans out of their jobs into early involuntary retirement--
an involuntary retirement marked by poverty. Future legislation 
can be part of a broader effort to ensure that federal 
investments promote the creation of inclusive, age-friendly 
workplaces. The federal government has enormous purchasing 
power, and policymakers should examine how it can use that 
power to encourage employers to invest in and leverage talent 
across generations, especially measures to attract and retain 
older workers.

Fully fund SCSEP and provide incentives for participating 
employers to provide higher quality, higher paying jobs

    At current funding levels, the Senior Community Service 
Program (SCSEP) can only service a small percentage of eligible 
individuals. Also, the profile of today's SCSEP job seeker is 
not the same as it was when the program was first enacted some 
50-plus years ago, especially post the Great Recession and our 
most recent pandemic recession.
    In the SCSEP program where I consulted in 2017, some 40 
percent of the participants had at least some college. SCSEP is 
limited to paying the minimum wage and few jobs offered 
advancement opportunities. Participants shared that they were 
grateful to be working, but struggled to make ends meet, let 
alone save.
    The economics of aging is forcing many older Americans to 
work beyond traditional retirement age. For SCSEP this means 
expanding its services to meet the needs of a broader cross-
section of economically vulnerable older job seekers for higher 
skilled employment opportunities spanning more functions and 
sectors.
    What Congress can do is provide incentives to attract new 
private sector companies into the program and strengthen the 
participation of existing SCSEP partners in a way that allows 
them to offer higher skilled, better paying jobs. Incentives 
could include support for training and workplace modifications, 
wage offsets and other subsidies. As noted earlier, good 
quality jobs could also come from specifically targeting 
assistance to older job seekers in The American Jobs Act or 
other big federally funded jobs programs.

Appointment of a Presidential Envoy on Aging, Longevity, and 
Retirement Security

    By 2034, it is estimated that there will be more Americans 
over age 65 than under age 18. Extended healthy life expectancy 
is a game changer. There is literally no sector of the economy 
it does not impact in profound ways--labor markets, financial 
markets, education, housing, and transportation. We are already 
seeing the consequences. What will it take for America to 
become age-ready? In the same way that John Kerry is leading 
the way on Climate Change, I would like to see a Presidential 
Envoy charged with anticipating the short and long-term 
challenges (and opportunities) of aging and longevity and 
coordinating an all-of-government response.
    Thank you for allowing me to share my story and ideas with 
you today. I know, firsthand, what it is like to be an older 
woman in financial jeopardy--the uncertainty and fear. It was 
stressful enough without having to contend with a pandemic. 
This is why it is so important, coming out of this COVID 
crisis, to meet the needs of older workers who are struggling 
and ensure tomorrow's economy works better for them than 
today's.
      Prepared Statement of Elise Gould, Ph.D., Senior Economist, 
            Economic Policy Institute, Takoma Park, Maryland

    Thank you, Chairman Casey, Ranking Member Scott, and 
members of the committee, for the invitation to participate in 
today's important hearing on supporting older workers amid the 
COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. My name is Elise Gould, I am a 
senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a leading 
non-profit non-partisan think tank that analyzes the effects of 
U.S. economic policy on working families. Today I would like to 
outline the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on older 
workers, how it compares to the Great Recession, and how we can 
build a stronger, more equitable economy going forward.

Older workers were devastated by the pandemic downturn and 
continue to face adverse employment outcomes

    In 2020, the U.S. economy took a hit like none other in 
recent history. The 2020 recession was driven by a highly 
unusual cause--the need to control the pandemic and keep people 
safe--its first-round impacts were far different than most 
previous recessions in terms of which sectors and workers were 
hit hardest and most durably. Workers across the economy, 
including older workers, experienced devastating job losses. 
Five point seven million workers 55 years old and older lost 
their jobs last spring--15 percent of total employment for this 
group--and remain over two million jobs short of their 
employment levels before the pandemic hit.
    Labor market outcomes were far worse for older workers in 
this recession as compared to their experience in the Great 
Recession. In particular, employment losses were greater for 
older workers 55 years and older in the pandemic recession 
compared to the Great Recession while the oldest of workers (65 
years and older) experienced employment gains in the Great 
Recession and losses in the pandemic recession. In particular, 
women ages 55 and older were met with a harsher economic 
reality in this recession than the prior one. One of the 
reasons the economic reality was bleaker for older workers is 
that they were less likely to be able to telework coming into 
the pandemic. They were also significantly harder hit by the 
pandemic itself and therefore may have left employment in 
greater numbers because of concerns over their own health. The 
economy requires continued assistance from policymakers to 
ensure that the economy comes back strong, and the recovery 
provides greater economic security and opportunity for all 
workers, regardless of age, race/ethnicity, gender, and 
educational attainment.

The U.S. economy faced devastating job losses in the pandemic 
recession and continues to face a significant employment 
shortfall

    At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. 
economy experienced losses in March and April of 1.7 million 
and 20.7 million jobs, respectively, losses the likes of which 
we hadn't experienced in modern history. Figure A shows the 
monthly changes in payroll employment between January 2020 and 
March 2021. The labor market saw a significant bounce back in 
May and June with 2.8 million and 4.8 million jobs added, 
respectively. Unfortunately, over the remainder of 2020, job 
growth rapidly slowed as vital federal relief expired and the 
virus surged. Then, employment fell outright in December 2020, 
a loss of 306,000 jobs.
    A solid 916,000 jobs were added in March, the strongest job 
growth we've seen since the initial bounce back faded last 
summer. Even with these gains, the labor market is still down 
8.4 million jobs from its pre-pandemic level in February 2020. 
In addition, thousands of jobs would have been added each month 
over the last year without the pandemic recession. If we count 
how many jobs may have been created if the recession hadn't 
hit--consider average job growth (202,000) over the 12 months 
before the recession--we are now short 11.0 million jobs since 
February. Even at this pace, it could take more than a year to 
dig out of the total jobs shortfall.
    The latest jobs number is certainly a promising sign for 
the recovery, especially as vaccinations increase and vital 
provisions in the American Rescue Plan (ARP) have continued to 
ramp up since the March reference period to today's data. While 
the benefits of the ARP will continue to be captured in coming 
months, more can be done to continue to keep the economic 
recovery on track, invest in the economic infrastructure, and 
surpass pre-pandemic benchmarks.

Millions of older workers lost their jobs in the COVID 
recession 

    Older workers were far from spared in the COVID recession. 
Figure B charts the monthly employment level for workers 55 
years and older between January 2020 and March 2021. Between 
March and April 2020, 5.7 million workers ages 55 and up lost 
their jobs. This represents a loss of 15 percent of employment 
among older workers. As with workers overall, older workers 
experienced a bit of a rebound last summer, but unlike most 
other workers, older workers lost ground through the fall. 
March 2021 was the first month since October 2020 that older 
workers saw positive gains in employment. Even with that more 
promising gain of 308,000 jobs in March 2021, older workers are 
still down 2.1 million jobs since February 2020.
    This understates the shortfall in employment for older 
workers because it simply calculates what it would take to 
return to the February 2020 labor market. A better measure 
would take into account the fact that the older population has 
grown significantly since then. The 55+ population has 
increased by more than 1.5 million since February 2020. 
Considering what the employment level could be given the 
February 2020 employment rate and recent population growth, 
older workers are facing a job shortfall of over 2.7 million 
jobs.

Older workers lost employment in greater numbers in the COVID 
downturn than in the Great Recession

    In the pandemic recession, older workers have faced a more 
challenging labor market than they experienced in the last 
labor market downturn, also referred to as the Great Recession. 
The official Great Recession followed the business cycle peak 
in 2007 and ended in 2009, though job losses continued into 
2011. Therefore, the depth of the Great Recession is best 
measured by comparing 2007 with 2011. Figure C reports full 
year data on the share of the population with a job, also known 
as the employment-to-population ratio (EPOP), by age group, 
comparing changes in EPOPs in the Great Recession (2007-2011) 
with changes in the pandemic recession (2019-2020). Comparing 
full year data for 2019 with 2020 does not capture the full 
extent of the worst of the pandemic recession, but it provides 
a sense for how the year as a whole impacts employment across 
age groups.
    The depth and length of the recession on employment rates 
was worse for young workers (16-24 years old) and prime-
working-age workers (25-54 years old) in the Great Recession 
than in the pandemic recession. EPOPs fell by 7.7 percentage 
points for young workers in the Great Recession and by 5.3 
percentage points in the pandemic recession. Prime-working-age 
workers experienced less of a difference between the 
recessions, but they did see a slightly larger fall in EPOPs in 
the former recession than the latter (4.8 ppt decline versus 
4.3 ppt decline).
    Older workers, on the other hand, experienced far worse 
labor market outcomes in the pandemic recession than the Great 
Recession. Workers 55-64 years old experienced more mild 
employment losses in the prior recession and workers ages 65 
and older experienced outright gains in the prior recession.\1\ 
Job losses may have been lighter among older workers in the 
former recession because of where the job losses occurred as 
well as the fact that older workers' retirement income may have 
been more compromised during the financial crisis than during 
the COVID recession and therefore they may have remained in the 
labor force longer than they otherwise would have. In addition, 
in the current recession, older workers may have left 
employment for fear of the pandemic itself.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ While the aging population--namely baby boomers reaching age 65 
during the Great Recession--may be a factor in the employment increases 
for workers age 65+ in the Great Recession, an examination of the same 
data using smaller age groupings confirms that the labor market led to 
fewer job losses among this group and the outright gains were 
experienced among those 65-69, 70-74, and 75 and older when measured 
separately.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Figure D compares the employment rates of men and women 
older workers, separately. Older men ages 55+ experienced 
greater employment losses than women in the COVID downturn, but 
older women experienced a bigger difference in employment 
between the Great Recession and the COVID recession. In 
particular, men ages 55-64 only saw a mild difference in their 
losses between the Great Recession and the COVID recession (3.0 
percentage point changes versus 3.5 percentage point change in 
their EPOPs). Women ages 55-64 saw a much larger drop in 
employment in the most recent recession, 3.1 percentage points 
versus 0.7 percentage points. This could be due in part to 
additional caregiving responsibilities for this cohort of older 
women. They may have left the labor force to care for elderly 
parents who left their nursing home or assisted living 
facility, other ill family members, or even grandchildren when 
the schools shuttered.
    Both men and women ages 65 and older experienced a 
significant swing in employment between the Great Recession and 
the COVID downturn. In the earlier period, both men and women 
saw increases in employment, while in the latter period, both 
experienced significant losses.

Older workers were harder hit by the pandemic itself and 
therefore may have employment in greater numbers because of 
concerns over their own health

    The data over the last year have been conclusive that older 
workers are at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19. 
Figure E shows the disproportionate death toll borne by the 
population 55 years old and older. The vast majority--93 
percent--of the deaths from COVID-19 were among those 55 years 
old and older. Over a half a million deaths were attributed to 
this older population. It would be no surprise then that many 
older workers may have not only lost their jobs but opted out 
of the workforce for fears of their own health and safety. This 
may be particularly true for older workers of color who have 
been hit harder from both the health and economic aspects of 
the pandemic.
    Unfortunately, older workers were less likely than many 
other age groups to be able to telework before the pandemic 
hit. Figure F shows the share of workers who were able to 
telework before the pandemic hit, by age group. Nearly three-
fourths of workers ages 65 and older--or over five million 
older workers--are unable to telecommute. Over two-thirds of 
55-to 64-year-olds cannot telework either; this represents 
another 15 million workers. That means that these workers, who 
are at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19 because of 
their age, could be putting themselves at risk to earn a 
paycheck.
    The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows 
that only about one-fifth of the current workforce is 
teleworking. That means that nearly 80 percent of workers are 
physically going to work. Not only does that include many older 
workers, but it's likely that millions of younger workers who 
cannot telework may be putting older family members at risk by 
going to work themselves.
    Congress has taken important steps to protect the health 
and economic well-being of workers and their families during 
the pandemic. However, in order for the economy to grow back 
quickly and stronger than before, policymakers should make sure 
the recovery hits all corners of the labor market. This means 
putting significant investments in policies that meet the 
pressing social needs the COVID-19 pandemic made so visible and 
that lead to greater economic security and opportunity for 
workers, including but not limited to, physical infrastructure, 
caregiving needs for young and old, paid leave, and expanded 
unemployment insurance.
    Thank you and I look forward to your questions.
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
   Prepared Statement by David Poston, President and CEO of Palmetto 
                 Synthetics, Kingstree, South Carolina

    Good morning Chairman Casey, Ranking Member Scott, and 
members of the Committee. My name is David Poston, and I am 
President of Palmetto Synthetics in Kingstree, South Carolina.
    We are a textile manufacturing company that produces 
specialty synthetic fibers for a wide variety of applications 
like automotive carpet, military uniforms, performance apparel, 
and industrial uses. We ship our fiber all over the world.
    We started Palmetto Synthetics in 1998 with five employees 
in one 50,000 square foot building with the goal to be the 
highest quality specialty fiber producer in the world. It was a 
green field startup. Literally in a soybean field.
    Today we have 250 employees working in a 375,000 square 
foot facility and we produce more specialty fiber, with a wider 
variety of applications, than any other company in the world. 
We operate our facility 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I am 
blessed and thankful for our success, which is the result of 
our talented and dedicated employees.
    Today, 50 percent of our production employees are over 50 
years old, and 70 percent are over 40. Furthermore, 100 percent 
of upper management is over the age of 50, as well as 90 
percent of middle management. We employ more managers in their 
70's than in their 20's and 30's.
    We do this because we found, while tracking attendance 
statistics a few years ago, we noticed that employees over the 
age of 40 had much better attendance records than our younger 
associates. Older workers were late less often, did not leave 
before the end of their shift, and were our most reliable 
workers.
    Since an employee who is late or absent has to be covered 
by a full-time person from a different shift, the teams with 
older employees translated to less overtime and higher quality 
production. We also discovered how older workers are a valuable 
asset to mentor and set strong work examples for younger 
workers as we build our workforce for the future.
    Our production and manufacturing jobs are not strenuous. 
The majority of our employees are monitoring the control panels 
of the production lines. Without the job requirements being 
physically taxing, we made the effort to recruit an older 
workforce to improve employee reliability and production.
    Over several years, as our workforce has aged, we continued 
to increase production and efficiency. We now actively recruit 
older production and management employees.
    Like other sectors of the economy, the American textile 
industry has been especially hard hit by the pandemic. In the 
span of just a few weeks last March, we went from 100 percent 
capacity utilization to less than 15 percent. In the face of 
countless lost orders and idle production lines, and the 
growing need for PPE, we retooled our equipment to help with 
the COVID response. We retooled to make fiber for COVID testing 
swabs as well as antimicrobial fiber for medical gowns. During 
this difficult period, we were able to keep 100 percent of our 
employees on the payroll because of a PPP loan we received.
    I do not know where our company would have been without the 
lifeline we received from our PPP loan. PPP saved most if not 
all of our jobs. I want to thank Senator Scott for his 
leadership on this program to ensure our nation's small 
businesses had the resources they needed to weather the storm.
    Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we implemented several social 
distancing practices on the production floor, instituted a mask 
requirement, and conducted temperature checks at the start of 
each shift to ensure our worker's health and safety. In 2020 we 
did have four seniors in management and 12 manufacturing 
employees choose to retire. We intend, as the economy opens, to 
recruit older associates to replace these recent retirees.
    Hiring, training, and retaining older workers is the key to 
our successful and efficient workforce at Palmetto Synthetics. 
Because of modern technology, manufacturing and production jobs 
are no longer out of reach of older workers. Meanwhile, more 
and more employers are discovering the unique advantages of 
older workers in their workforce to mentor younger workers, 
retain institutional knowledge, and increase reliability.
    Thank you Chairman Casey, Ranking Member Scott, and the 
rest of the Committee for inviting me today to share this 
testimony. I look forward to answering your questions. Thank 
you.
  
=======================================================================


                        Questions for the Record

=======================================================================
     

               Questions for the Record To David Poston 

                           From Senator Lee 

Question:

    According to a report published by the Economic Policy 
Institute (EPI), older workers are more likely to be 
independent contractors than any other age group, with the 
share of workers between the ages 55 to 64 rising from 18.8 
percent in 2005 to 22.9 percent in 2017 and workers aged 65 and 
older, rising from 8.5 percent to 14.1 percent in the same 
timeframe. Allowing for elderly workers to have access to 
flexible work arrangements, such as independent contracting, 
allows for these workers to pursue employment opportunities 
that may better suit their needs than traditional employment.
    What can Congress do to ensure that the federal government 
does not stand in the way of businesses, like yours, from being 
able to provide flexible work opportunities for the elderly 
workforce?

Response:

    Our manufacturing company operates 24 hours a day, seven 
days a week. Our manufacturing process does not allow for 
production to start and stop. Once running, our manufacturing 
lines need to operates continuously. For us, having full 
employment around the clock is extremely important. Our older 
workers tend to have be lowest absentee rates, especially on 
nights and weekends. We would welcome any change to offer more 
flexible schedules to our employees. Especially if the changes 
drove more seniors into the workforce.

Question:

    The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that work flexibility has 
become an even more valued benefit than it already was in the 
past. However, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the only 
option available to private-sector, hourly employees who work 
overtime is to receive monetary compensation at 1 1/2 times 
their normal pay. These private-sector employers are not 
legally able to offer their employees paid time off as an 
alternative option. I have legislation, the Working Families 
Flexibility Act, that would fix this problem, giving employees 
more flexibility on how they use their overtime benefits.
    As an employer, would you value being able to have more 
flexibility from the federal government regarding the types of 
overtime benefits you can offer your employees?

Response:

    Absolutely. Being able to offer other options, such as paid 
time off, would be a tremendous help in the recruitment and 
retention of older workers. We as a company would like to offer 
more flexibility to our workers, especially the older ones, 
where money earned may not be their sole reason for being in 
the workforce. Offering more options other than overtime pay 
could help drive more seniors into parts of workforce, like 
manufacturing, that are currently desperately needing 
additional workers.
    
      
=======================================================================


                  Additional Statements for the Record

=======================================================================

                Bonnie Marcus Statement for the Record 

    I would like to start at the end of my story . . .
    I thought that after all of the time that has passed 
between the trials and now, I was over the hurt, pain and 
loneliness I experienced. I thought I had left behind the 
sadness over betrayal by ``friends'', the humiliation of my 
situation being known in the industry and the feelings of 
failure. Recently in talking to Senator Casey's representatives 
about my experience with age discrimination, I felt my 
``stomach ache'' come back--that feeling of anger about an 
unfairness and the inability to do anything about it. I am 
reliving what happened, and I'm still damn mad, sad and upset.
    Now to the beginning.
    I started at the company in 1994 after being approached at 
an international conference by senior managers of the company. 
At the time, I was working at an oil company that was doing 
very little work in my area of expertise, and I was looking for 
other opportunities. I was 50 at the time and had been in the 
field since 1981; I went back to school when my son was in 
first grade for my longtime dream--a degree in chemistry--and I 
got my Masters while working for Union Carbide Corporation in 
New York.
    I was hired by the company as a Senior Chemist. I was 
promoted to Manager, Market Development Zeolites and Custom 
later that year and was added to the bonus plan. In 1999 I was 
promoted to Manager, Technical Market Development.
    In 2005, the privately held company had been sold and a 
restructuring was to occur. I was told by a VP privately that 
the restructuring was going to target older employees for 
layoff and that I would be one. That hit me like a ton of 
bricks. I was devastated that after rising so quickly and being 
on the path for advancement, I was going to be let go. I was 
really surprised since I had gotten the maximum bonus possible, 
excellent yearly reviews and was working on projects with other 
companies that were designated as our company's next generation 
products.
    After the layoff, I was hurt by the lack of feeling of the 
people running the new company. It was so painful to be thrown 
away like something that was used up and not needed. I really 
hurt from that, and I felt a profound loneliness because so 
many of my thoughts centered around work and how to have my 
whole group be successful and now that was gone. I felt 
betrayed by my bosses who I thought were friends and respected 
my work. It made me so sad and angry to realize that their 
attitude was ``take her, not me.''
    My feeling of failure was very high when I was told that 
all of my projects were being discontinued--it meant that I had 
really failed badly. Then when I was told to stay for several 
weeks to transition the supposedly canceled projects to others, 
I was really angry at being lied to about the reason for the 
terminations. I also realized that all of the R&D people who 
were laid off were older--all over 55--and that our projects 
were being transitioned to younger people who were less skilled 
in the science. That's when I decided to fight them. I 
approached the others and suggested getting a lawyer which 
several of us did.
    I was terrified of the legal process. I was really scared 
about going ahead with it, but I wanted to be strong in order 
to help my co-workers. They were in my group and they depended 
on me to be the voice that supported them and kept them going. 
I felt like I had a really heavy weight on me.
    There were two trials; both of them lasted for more than a 
week and had about 20 witnesses. The trials were a nightmare; 
going into Philadelphia every day, hearing ``friends'' 
basically trash all of us and try to prove that age wasn't a 
factor. VPs and managers who changed their story several times 
as to why we were fired and not younger people even though it 
was apparent from the ages of the people let go and those 
retained what the reason was. The company kept introducing new 
non-age reasons for our being fired . . . it was like playing 
wack-a-mole--as their reasons were shot down by facts, they 
brought up new ones trying to prove that it wasn't about age. 
We constantly had to prove that the non-age reasons were not 
true, and yet I felt that they never had to justify why they 
had introduced the untrue reasons. All of it felt like the goal 
was to humiliate and demean us to justify their decisions to 
``get rid of the old farts.'' The appeals the company made that 
prolonged the case added more and more stress. I felt like I 
was on trial not the company. I hated it.
    I'm not a publicly emotional person, and I surprised myself 
by bursting into tears at the end of the second trial and 
bawling my eyes out. I realized it was letting loose all of the 
stress I had. Before I could fully decompress, along came the 
company appeal to the next court and the threat of taking it to 
the U.S. Supreme Court. I just kept getting hammered and 
feeling that I was being punished for suing. We carried on and 
finally it was done and we won the appeal--it was the end of 
the nightmare.
    Thanks to the support of my family and my lawyer and my own 
strength, I made it through the nightmare to the end. Several 
times I wanted to quit the case because I was so worn out 
emotionally, but I knew I was doing the right thing for me and 
the others. I know that I can live with being angry about what 
happened, but I know that I couldn't live with not having tried 
to right an injustice. I hope you can help others to not have 
to go through what I did.
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                       National Council on Aging 

May 4, 2021

The Honorable Robert P. Casey. Jr.
Chairman
U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging

    Dear Senator Casey,
    I am writing to express my appreciation for the opportunity 
to testify at last Thursday's hearing, ``A Changing Workforce: 
Supporting Older Workers Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic and 
Beyond'' on behalf of the National Council on Aging (NCOA).
    As mentioned in my testimony, the unfortunate events of the 
past year have created an unprecedented opportunity to 
transform how we think about the pandemic's toll on older 
workers and the workforce at large. Now, more than ever, we 
must make every effort to surface the right role for us to play 
in changing the landscape to address these challenges. This 
includes addressing age discrimination in the workplace, 
revitalizing training and re-skilling programs for older 
workers, and enhancing retirement and support for career 
transitions. We recognize that many of these issues are not new 
and have been put forth for many years. This demonstrates that 
during times of both economic crisis and economic growth, the 
employment barriers facing older workers remain unaddressed.
    We appreciate that one of the first outcomes of this 
hearing is the joint letter which you and Ranking Member Scott 
sent to Labor Secretary Walsh to request information on older 
workers and the Federal Government's response to the issues 
they face accessing and retaining employment. We hope this will 
be the first of many efforts to engage the Administration to 
focus on the unique challenges and opportunities of an aging 
workforce, both now and into the future.
    Thank you again for enlisting NCOA in this important dialog 
and the opportunity to raise these issues and solutions with 
the Committee, and we look forward to continued collaboration 
to support older workers during the pandemic and beyond.

    Sincerely,

    Ramsey Alwin
    President and CEO

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