People are living longer, more expensive lives, often without much of a safety net. As a result, record numbers of Americans older than 65 are working now nearly 1 in 5. That proportion has risen steadily over the past decade, and at a far faster rate than any other age group. Today, 9 million senior citizens work, compared with 4 million in 2000.
While some work by choice rather than need, millions of others are entering their golden years with alarmingly fragile finances. Fundamental changes in the U.S. retirement system have shifted responsibility for saving from the employer to the worker, exacerbating the nation's rich-poor divide. Two recent recessions have devastated personal savings. And at a time when 10,000 baby boomers are turning 65 every day, Social Security benefits have lost about a third of their purchasing power since 2000.
Polls show that most older people are more worried about running out of money than dying.
"There is no part of the country where the majority of middle-class older workers have adequate retirement savings to maintain their standard of living in their retirement," said Teresa Ghilarducci, a labor economist who specializes in retirement security. "People are coming into retirement with a lot more anxiety and a lot less buying power."
As a result, many older workers are hitting the road as work campers also called "workampers" those who shed costly lifestyles, purchase RVs and travel the nation picking up seasonal jobs that typically offer hourly wages and few or no benefits.
Amazon's "CamperForce" program hires thousands of these silver-haired migrant workers to box online orders during the Christmas rush. (Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Walmart, whose giant parking lots are famous for welcoming RV travelers, has hired elderly people as store greeters and cashiers. Websites such as the Workamper News list jobs as varied as ushering at NASCAR tracks in Florida, picking sugar beets in Minnesota and working as security guards in the Texas oil fields.
In Maine, which calls itself "Vacationland," thousands of seniors are drawn each summer to the state's rocky coastline and picturesque small towns, both as vacationers and seasonal workers. In Bar Harbor, one of the state's most popular tourist destinations, well-to-do retirees come ashore from luxury cruise ships to dine on $30 lobsters and $13 glasses of sauvignon blanc leaving tips for other senior citizens waiting on oceanfront tables, driving Ollie's Trolley buses or taking tickets for whale-watching tours.
The Devers have noticed this economic divide. They found their campground jobs online and drove here in May, with plans to stay until the season ends in October. On a recent day off, they took a bus tour near Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park, where the tour guide pointed outthe oceanfront Rockefeller estate and Martha Stewart's 12-bedroom mansion.
"The ones who go on these ritzy, ritzy cruises to all these islands in Maine, I don't know how they got all that money. Maybe they were born into it," said Jeannie, 72. "And then you see this poor little old retired person next door, who can hardly keep going. And he's got his little trailer." ... The Devers first hit the road in their 33-foot American Star RV when Jeannie turned 65. Since then, they have worked jobs in Wyoming, Pennsylvania and now Maine. In addition to their $10-an-hour paychecks, the couple receives $22,000 a year from Social Security, an amount that has barely budged while health-care and other costs have soared.
"If we didn't work, our money would run out real quick," Richard said.