For Workers Over 50, a Job Without Benefits Spells Long-Term Trouble

The New York Times reports that Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, recently finished gathering data for a study on American workers ages 50 to 62 in jobs without benefits. The study surprisingly found that three-quarters of American workers in that age group had positions that fall into the center's "non-traditional" category — meaning, those without employer-provided retirement plans and health insurance. Freelancers and consultants of all stripes can fit that definition. So can waiters, artists, yoga instructors, and anyone who works part time or whose income is generated by the gig economy. What may be less surprising is the effect these jobs can have on retirement. Depending on how much time workers spent in a job without benefits from ages 50 to 62, they can expect their retirement income to be as much as 26 percent lower than that of people who spent their 50s and early 60s in positions with full benefit packages, according to the center's findings. Munnell concludes, "The results mean that people have to worry about getting protections on their own, and that they have very unpredictable work lives."