Band 6+: The increase in people’s life expectancy means that they have to work older to pay for their retirement. One alternative is that people start to work at a younger age. Is this alternative a positive or negative development?

Due to longer life span, many people are being forced to work past their retirement age. So, some people consider joining the workforce from a younger age as a solution. I believe it is not only beneficial for people but also for the society.

From the individual perspective, the first advantage of starting work at a younger age is that people can save more money and thus have financial security in the later stages of life. This ensures that they are not obligated to work during older age, when most people are already suffering from health ailments. Secondly, young people have fewer financial and family obligations than older workers, and thus they are able to prioritise their careers. For example, they might be able to move from one city to another for a promotion, while it might be quite challenging for employees with a family. As a result, they are able to climb the career ladder faster leading to significantly higher pay packages by the time they retire.

In addition, starting a career early, means that people have the option to switch careers in later stages of life, as they would be still comparatively younger. This might not be possible past a certain age in life. Finally, companies are also willing to train and invest in younger employees, who are likely to stay with them for a longer time, as compared to older ones. In other words, people have chances of securing better jobs early in their life.

That main advantage from a societal perspective is that in general younger employees are fitter and more productive as compared to their older counterparts. Moreover, starting the career earlier means, people are established by the time, they have families and thus they are able to devote more time to their children’s upbringing. This can in part address issues like smoking, drinking and drug abuse in teenagers and also rising juvenile delinquency.

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that starting a career early is certainly a better alternative to working older as it would be advantageous both for the people and the society as well.