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#Leadership : #WomenOlderWorkers – Let’s Stop Letting #Women Age Out of the #Workforce Worse Off than Men…We try to prepare girls to be successful women by plotting their career paths early. But women heading toward retirement get little support and often pay the price.

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When your father or grandfather retired, his company might’ve thrown a little get-together, complete with toasts by backslapping colleagues, a cake, and an engraved watch. If he was lucky, he walked into retirement knowing he had a company pension or ample retirement savings to see him through the rest of his life.

Today? Not so much. Especially not for women.

Women who are approaching retirement in the U.S. today face a trifecta of challenges: They’re living longer (an average of 20 years past age 65), have significantly less money saved (an average of just $34,000), and face ever-increasing costs, especially for health care (an average of $5,503 a year out-of-pocket). This adds up to far greater economic insecurity among women as they age. In fact, according to the National Institute on Retirement Security, women aged 65 and older have incomes that are 25% lower than men’s, and they are 80% more likely than men to be impoverished past age 65.

Women of color face even deeper disparities as they age. African American and Latina women earn less from Social Security, assets, and pensions than do white women, and they rely on Social Security for a larger portion of their income, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The good news is that employers have a unique opportunity to turn these numbers around, by thinking proactively about supporting working women today so they can age well later. Here are three ideas.

CLOSE THE PAY GAP AND EXPAND MENTORING

Women begin retirement with a hurdle that’s followed them their entire careers: the gender pay gap. Labor Department statistics show the gap is as stubborn as ever, with women earning 21% less than men, a disparity that worsens among women of color and in certain industries more than others. Lower pay means less money saved, both in personal retirement accounts and Social Security benefits. Overall, women receive nearly $4,000 a year less in Social Security than men.

Employers can level the playing field by eliminating the gender wage gap among their employees now, so their women employees don’t leave the workforce already disadvantaged once they retire. This is not an impossible goal. Starbucks, for example, has reached100% pay equity among its employees. One part of the solution is to widen women’s participation in STEM fields; another is for employers to offer more flexible schedules and remote-work opportunities.

Companies also need to do a better job of nurturing and mentoring women to move up into leadership positions that offer greater opportunities and more pay. Staff development and performance management are critical to ensuring that women keep learning and developing over the entire course of their careers–this way they can retire from them on a more secure financial footing.

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LET WOMEN PHASE INTO LIFE AFTER WORK

Few women today want to work one day and stop the next. They want and need to continue working, but other responsibilities may be tugging at them. By one recent estimate, for example, up to 20% of working women are also caring for an elderly loved one.

Employers need to create organizational climates where women approaching retirement don’t feel it’s risky to have conversations about phased retirement options. Working part-time or moving to a position that requires less responsibility can be a solution–and employers should be game to offer that. In the latest Transamerica Retirement Survey, only 23% of workers said they plan to immediately stop working at a specific point in time. However, 25% also said that their employers do nothing to help employees enter retirement. Organizations need to step up and change that.

ARM WOMEN WITH KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT’S AHEAD

As a society, we try to prepare girls to grow into successful women; think Girl Scouts, STEM initiatives, and Girls on the Run. But how do we help women prepare to age well? We don’t teach them how their bodies are going to change as they age, or how to manage their savings so it will last an extra 20 years.

Just as we counsel younger women to make informed decisions about their education and careers, we need to support older women in planning for a successful third phase of life. My organization, the National Council on Aging, created an “Aging Mastery Program”to provide this kind of unbiased guidance, complete with small steps people can take to chart their own paths toward aging well.

While the days of engraved watches and pension plans may be over for most (and were never equitably available to all to begin with), a secure retirement should be a right for every person who has put in a lifetime of work–especially women. Forward-thinking employers need to help women plan not just for successful careers but for successful lives after work. And they need to start right now.

Anna Maria Chávez is Executive Vice President and Chief Growth Officer at the National Council on Aging.

Rich Bellis is Associate Editor of Fast Company’s Leadership section.

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FastCompany.com | July 27, 2018

#Leadership : Dos and Don’ts: How To Use Your Girl Power In Corporate Culture…The Corporate World Changes so Fast that Your Employee or Colleague of Today can Become your Leader of Tomorrow, so it is Important that You Build Relations at Work.

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There’s no shortage of women entering the travel industry — but men dominate when it comes to senior management, especially in the hotel industry. According to a 2015 white paper produced by the Hospitality Industry Pipeline Coalition, women hold less than 40 percent of all managerial positions in hospitality, less than 20 percent of general management roles and just 5 to 8 percent of board positions.

female-employee

Laura Salles, a millennial employee on the rise at the Hotel Arts Barcelona, shares her tips for getting ahead. (Courtesy of Laura Salles)

Ritz-Carlton aims to change that: the hotel company is putting an emphasis on equal opportunities for women, in alignment with the UN’s goal for equality in the workplace by 2030. Through Community Footprints — its corporate social responsibility arm —  Ritz-Carlton has announced a mission to promote the rise of female employees into management positions by encouraging mentorship and other positive reinforcement.

The goal: “keeping women inspired to not only enter the workforce but to remain in the workforce and to then progress into opportunities for leadership,” says Nicki Allen, manager of Community Footprints.

 One Ritz-Carlton employee whose career is being fostered as a result is Laura Salles — the perfect example of girl power in action. The 24-year-old was recently named manager of international and domestic communications at the Hotel Arts Barcelona, a Ritz-Carlton property in Spain. After starting in 2013 as a trainee at the front desk, Salles has had a meteoric rise through the ranks — from pool supervisor to club lounge manager to her current role as public relations manager, which involves overseeing the property’s image and traveling around the globe to promote the property.

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Originally from Brazil, Salles says she has consistently been encouraged and mentored within her various roles. She wants to encourage other young women to pursue and follow their dreams, too. And yet, she recognizes there are unique challenges to navigating corporate culture, especially as a woman.

This go-getter reveals the top Dos and Don’ts that have helped her achieve her career goals — and that other young women can follow, too.

Dos:

1. Build genuine relationships (as opposed to kissing up to those you may assume could one day benefit you personally).

The corporate world changes so fast that your employee or colleague of today can become your leader of tomorrow, so build relations at work. Besides making your work environment more fun, this will cultivate good future connections.

2. Ask for responsibility, and believe in yourself.

During your career, not everyone will believe you should be promoted and might have thoughts like: “She is too young, she doesn’t have enough experience.” No matter how young you are, you need to demonstrate your capabilities by projecting confidence, and give your leader confidence to entrust you with new opportunities. Most importantly, believe in yourself and others will believe in you, as well.

3. Focus on balance: Cultivate a personal life, in addition to prioritizing work responsibilities.

Your personal life is as important as your professional life. You don’t want to look back with regret in a few years, saying: “I did not live in my 20’s.” You can work hard, but you can also play hard. Having friends and social life after work is vital. With breaks and fun time off, you’ll come back to work with even more creativity.

4. Maintain a positive attitude.

Young people are naturally positive, so play this up. Energy is contagious, as is empathy; you can impact your work environment and connect with your colleagues by behaving as you’d want others to behave.

5. Smile — always.

This simple act will help you in every interaction with others. Be approachable. Remember that this is an exciting journey, and there are endless opportunities to learn and grow.

Don’ts:

1. Don’t compare yourself with others.

Everyone has a different career and life. You are not better or worse than anyone — you are YOU. And that should be your point.

2. Don’t forget to breathe.

Allowing insecurity, anxiety or emotions to hold you back from accomplishment is you hampering your own potential.

3. Don’t talk too much; listen more.

Understand that many people have experienced more than you have. So give a chance to listen before you impose what you think. This is particularly important when you are young and starting out.

4. Don’t mix your private and professional life.

Everyone has personal problems but you need to try to control them when you are at work. Don’t let your emotions dominate you. You don’t want to transmit an immature or uncontrolled image.

5. Don’t take no as a stop sign.

Don’t get tired, don’t give up. “No” should be gasoline for you to continue and work hard to finally get to “yes” (opportunity). You will achieve your objectives when you strategically plan them. Running without a clear destination will not drive you anywhere.

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram and check out more of my work atlaurabegleybloom.com.

 

Forbes.com |  September 27, 2016 | Laura Begley Bloom 

 

 

Your #Career : 5 Tips To Help Women Work Longer…Women are Working Longer before Retiring, or Working Part-Time in Retirement, & That’s a Good Thing.

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Let’s start with the big picture and why I find this trend to be a silver lining for boomer women — both financially and spiritually. Then I’ll offer some advice on ways women can successfully stay on the job and use these bonus working years to strengthen their finances as they age.

portrait of Young pretty business woman work on notebook computer in the bright modern office indoors

A recent study, Women Working Longer: Facts and Some Explanations, presented by Harvard University economists Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz at the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Women Working Longer conference last month, reported that women have been working longer for a long time. Their labor market participation increased decade after decade during the 20th century, as more women entered the labor force.

The New Story About Working Women

But that’s an old story, they wrote. “The new story is that a large fraction of women are working a lot longer, past their sixties and even into their seventies,” said the report.

In fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that by the end of this decade, about 20% of women over 65 will be in the labor force.

“Women’s increased participation beyond their fifties is a change of real consequence,” according to Goldin and Katz. “Rather than being an increase in marginal part-time workers, the higher labor force participation of older women consists disproportionately of those working at full-time jobs. Women are remaining on their jobs as they age rather than scaling down or leaving for positions with shorter hours and fewer days.”

Four factors that have influenced the uptick: More women have been holding jobs with greater advancement, have been college graduates, were not currently married or were married to men who also extended employment into their later years.

 

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Working for the Money — or Not

Sometimes, the women aren’t working because they need to, financially.

“From my work with Katz, we find a strong increase in employment among the most highly educated of those women older than fifty-five and for those who are in managerial and professional occupations — even if their financial security appears to be reasonable,” Goldin told me. “Higher levels of employment for women older than fifty-five years also appear to be among those who are healthier and whose occupations are the most rewarding and least physically taxing.” (This echoes the survey conducted by Elizabeth Fideler for her book, Women Still at Work.)

In other cases, however, money is very much a factor.

Olivia S. Mitchell, executive director of the Pension Research Council at The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania Mitchell and Annamaria Lusardi, a professor of economics and accountancy at The George Washington University School of Business, report in their new study, Older Women’s Labor Market Attachment, Retirement Planning, and Household Debt:

“When we explore the reasons for delayed retirement among older women…household finances also appears to be playing a key role, in that older women today have more debt than previously…In large part this can be attributed to having taken on larger residential mortgages due to the run-up in housing prices over time and lower down payments as well.”

Other gauges of financial distress, they said: few women are able to easily cover their expenses in a typical month or have set aside emergency fundsto cover expenses for three months. Many women also said they didn’t pay off credit card balances in full, paid only the minimum due and were charged fees for late payments or exceeding the limits.

Catherine Collinson, president of Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies and Transamerica Institute, recently told a U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing that her organization’s surveys found that only 42% of women workers say they are building a large enough nest egg to retire without financial worries, compared to 55% of men.

“Women age 50 and older — especially unmarried women — face extreme financial risks and potential poverty in retirement,” Collinson told me when I interviewed for a previous Next Avenue article. Many women Transamerica surveyed say they plan to work until age 70 or later — or don’t plan to retire at all.

The Financial Bonuses for Women Working Longer

Fortunately, when I touched based with Mitchell this week, she noted that there were a host of financial bonuses for women extending careers.

“Longer work reduces the drawdown on financial assets,” she told me. “Longer work could lengthen the time one is covered by employer-based health insurance, hence diminishing personal spending on health care costs. And a longer worklife can contribute to enhanced well being due to continued relationships with co-workers and social networks.”

And, as they say on late night TV infomercials, there’s more!

“Work can provide important resources for women — such as a sense of meaning and purpose, a positive identity, and a social network — in addition to financial benefit,” said Colorado State Assistant Professor Gwenith Fisher, who has been studying when and why people retire. Fisher was on a Future of Work and Retirement panel I recently moderated at Columbia University’s 2016 Age Boom Academy.

Moreover, added Fisher, “continuing to work is also associated with cognitive and health benefits: research that has studied patterns of cognitive functioning has shown that working in jobs that involve thinking, problem solving, and creativity is related to less cognitive decline, and retirement is also linked to earlier mortality, even among people who did not retire due to their health.”

Of course, men can enjoy these benefits by working longer, too.

(More: A Sneak Peek Into the Future of Work and Retirement)

Working Longer and Social Security

Working longer can provide women with a significant financial boost from Social Security, too.

Women are more dependent on Social Security than men and their average Social Security income is roughly 77% of that of men, according to research by Aine Ni Leime of Case Western Reserve University. Moreover, said Ni Leime (who recently presented research at the Work and Family Researchers Network annual conference in Washington, D.C.), women are 56% of all Social Security beneficiaries age 62 and older and 66% of all beneficiaries age 85 and older.

The potential gain in Social Security benefits alone from working longer is enough to place married women on equal footing with married men in terms of Social Security wealth at age 70, according to research by Harvard economist Nicole Maestas, an expert in the study of aging who was also on my Age Boom Academy panel.

“Working beyond the Social Security early retirement age until age 70 would make a sizable increase in the magnitude of lifetime Social Security benefits to which married women are entitled,” she found. “The gain in years worked at older ages would be sufficient to offset early gaps in the earnings record, and would place women on par with men in terms of lifetime resources available to them in the latter part of life. This is because the additional years of earnings at these ages replace earlier years of low or zero earnings in the retirement benefit computation formula.”

5 Tips for Women Who Want to Work Longer

So for women who’ve been persuaded that it’s worth staying on the job beyond the traditional retirement age, here are five tips to make sure youdon’t burn out, do stay employable and can use the bonus years to prepare for a financially secure retirement:

(More: How to Love Your Job Even If You Don’t Like It)

1. Never stop learning and adding skills. It’s crucial to keep your skills sharp if you want to stay on the job. Sign up for continuing education, or professional development programs offered by your employer.

2. Keep up on trends in your industry. Then, when attractive opportunities arise at work, you’ll be ready to raise your hand for them. One suggestion: set up a Google Alert to alert you about the latest news in your field.

3. Ramp up your financial literacy. Learn all you can about investing, retirement savings and Social Security strategies. Mitchell and Lusardi found that women who were more financially literate were more likely to plan for retirement, were less likely to have excessive debt and were less likely to be financially fragile.

4. Calculate your retirement savings needs and save at a level to achieve them. Among women who estimated their retirement savings needs, 62% say they “guessed,” according to Transamerica. Only 7% had completed a worksheet or done a calculation and just 3% consulted a financial adviser for the figure.

5. Continue participating in your employer’s retirement plan. The longer you work, the longer you can keep contributing and stave off dipping into those funds, allowing them to grow tax-deferred. That way your money works longer, too.

Forbes.com | July 3, 2016 | Next Avenue