National Older Workers Employment Week – March 9-15, 2025

History of National Older Workers Employment Week

The origin of retirement can be traced to ancient Rome in the 13th century B.C. when the empire paid pensions to Roman Legionnaires who had served for 20 years. In the 18th century, Cotton Mather, a New England Puritan minister and author, used his popularity to campaign for elderly people to retire. He said, “Be glad of dismission. . . Be pleased with the retirement which you are dismissed into.” In 1883, Otto von Bismarck, the German chancellor, proposed an initiative to pay those 65 and older to leave the workforce. The idea was a political maneuver against Marxists gaining power and popularity. Before the end of the decade — in 1889 — the initiative became law, and citizens over 70 were paid pensions. This initiative quickly caught fire, and governments began adopting a similar retirement system.

In the mid-1800s, the U.S. government started providing public pensions to certain municipal employees —mainly in the big cities — including firefighters, police, and teachers. In 1875, American Express became the first company to offer private pensions. By the 1920s, private pensions had become widespread, and various industries — from railroads to oil to banking — had begun offering them to their employees. In 1935, the U.S. government under the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced the Social Security Act, forcing workers to pay for their retirement. The official retirement age was then capped at 65.

In the 1900s, the retirement industry boomed, and Florida became the retirement destination for the white-collar class. Retired workers became known as senior citizens, and the American Association of Retired Persons turned into “AARP Inc.” Today, governments and organizations worldwide are developing initiatives to bring back older people into the workforce and have them work until they can’t work anymore.