Has "normal retirement age" really changed?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The other day I asked for reader opinions about the retirement age. \u00a0Both here and on my facebook page, what I learned is that my generation doesn't\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/09\/has-normal-retirement-age-really-changed.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Has "normal retirement age" really changed?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The other day I asked for reader opinions about the retirement age. \u00a0Both here and on my facebook page, what I learned is that my generation doesn't\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/09\/has-normal-retirement-age-really-changed.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-09-26T18:54:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2016\/04\/Social_security_card.gif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"293\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/09\/has-normal-retirement-age-really-changed.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/09\/has-normal-retirement-age-really-changed.html\",\"name\":\"Has \\\"normal retirement age\\\" really changed?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-09-26T18:54:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-26T18:54:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"The other day I asked for reader opinions about the retirement age. \u00a0Both here and on my facebook page, what I learned is that my generation doesn't\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/09\/has-normal-retirement-age-really-changed.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/09\/has-normal-retirement-age-really-changed.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/09\/has-normal-retirement-age-really-changed.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Has “normal retirement age” really changed?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Has \"normal retirement age\" really changed?","description":"The other day I asked for reader opinions about the retirement age. \u00a0Both here and on my facebook page, what I learned is that my generation doesn't","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/09\/has-normal-retirement-age-really-changed.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Has \"normal retirement age\" really changed?","og_description":"The other day I asked for reader opinions about the retirement age. \u00a0Both here and on my facebook page, what I learned is that my generation doesn't","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/09\/has-normal-retirement-age-really-changed.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2016-09-26T18:54:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":293,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2016\/04\/Social_security_card.gif","type":"image\/gif"}],"author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/09\/has-normal-retirement-age-really-changed.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/09\/has-normal-retirement-age-really-changed.html","name":"Has \"normal retirement age\" really changed?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-09-26T18:54:09+00:00","dateModified":"2016-09-26T18:54:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"The other day I asked for reader opinions about the retirement age. \u00a0Both here and on my facebook page, what I learned is that my generation doesn't","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/09\/has-normal-retirement-age-really-changed.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/09\/has-normal-retirement-age-really-changed.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/09\/has-normal-retirement-age-really-changed.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Has “normal retirement age” really changed?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":5377,"date":"2016-09-26T12:54:09","date_gmt":"2016-09-26T18:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=5377"},"modified":"2016-09-26T12:54:09","modified_gmt":"2016-09-26T18:54:09","slug":"has-normal-retirement-age-really-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/09\/has-normal-retirement-age-really-changed.html","title":{"rendered":"Has “normal retirement age” really changed?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Social_security_card.gif;$ <\/p>\n

The other day I asked for reader opinions about the retirement age<\/a>. \u00a0Both here and on my facebook page, what I learned is that my generation doesn\u2019t really think of there being a \u201cnormal\u201d retirement age at all.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s something I\u2019ve been thinking about.\u00a0 The \u201cofficial\u201d Social Security Normal Retirement Age (SSNRA) is now age 66, and will be making its way to 67 before long. \u00a0But you wouldn\u2019t know it from everything you see around you:<\/p>\n

The Medicare eligibility age is 65. \u00a0In fact, you\u2019re headed for trouble if you don\u2019t start Medicare at age 65, even if you\u2019re still working.<\/p>\n

The SSI eligibility age is 65. \u00a0This means, in practice, that age 65 is the age at which you are eligible for welfare without a work requirement. \u00a0The \u201cno work requirement\u201d eligibility age for food stamps is even younger \u2014 age 60.<\/p>\n

The earliest age\u00a0at which you can begin benefits is 62, and did not move with the change in the SSNRA.<\/p>\n

The latest age at which you can defer retirement and see a bump up in your benefit, is age 70, and did not move with the change to the SSNRA.<\/p>\n

The government (BLS, census, DOL, etc.) still measures trends having to do with retirement with an \u201cage 65\u201d breakpoint (e.g., this recent report<\/a> that the number of women working past the age of 65 has increased).<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure readers could come up with other ways in which government agencies and private organizations still treat age 65 as the normative retirement age, and continued employment past that age as something unusual (as in the above article), and indicative of either poverty or, conversely, unusually good health.<\/p>\n

All of which suggests that, despite the SSNRA increase to 67, we don\u2019t really expect retirees to change their behavior, which further says that increasing the SSNRA to age 67 was really just a sneaky way of imposing a benefit cut.<\/p>\n

After all, otherwise eligibility for Medicare and SSI would be keyed to the SSNRA, and the early and late retirement ages would move in tandem with the SSNRA, right?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image: \u00a0https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Social_security_card.gif; originally produced by the Social Security Administration and in the public domain<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"