Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chair, older workers are doing quite well in today's modern economy. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS, employment for workers age 65 and older tripled from 1988 to 2018, while employment for younger workers grew by a third. The number of employed people age 75 and older nearly quadrupled from 461,000 in 1988 to 1.8 million in 2018. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle paint a bleak picture of these valued workers standing in the workforce, when, in fact, employment trends for older workers are positive in recent decades. According to BLS, in 1998, the median weekly earnings of older full- time employees was 77 percent of the median for workers age 16 and up. In 2018, older workers earned 7 percent more than the median for all workers. The labor force participation rate for older workers has been rising steadily since the late 1990s. Participation rates for younger age groups either declined or flattened over this period. Over the past 20 years, the number of older workers on full-time work schedules grew 2\1/2\ times faster than the number working part time. As I said, the picture is bright. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.”