Is it time to raise the Social Security retirement age?

My guest this week on the podcast is Richard Johnson. Rich directs the program on retirement policy at The Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. He is an economist by training, and a great deal of his research is focused on the labor market for older workers, and their employment and retirement decisions.

Recently Rich published an intriguing paper with a question in the title -- “Is it time to Raise the Social Security Retirement Age?” This is an idea that crops up often as a partial fix for the long-term financial challenges facing Social Security. It usually is justified by pointing to gains in longevity - if we’re all living longer, we should wait longer for Social Security benefits - right?

This isn’t the only idea out there for fixing Social Security’s financial problems, of course. The other way is to raise more money through higher payroll tax rates or other taxes. And the Democratic Party increasingly is looking to expansion as part of the fix.

Johnson’s paper does a great job of analyzing the retirement age question, looking at the pro and con arguments in great detail. Give it a listen.

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