Thomas Barwick | Digitalvision | Getty Images
A fight is brewing in Washington over whether the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots should be raised from 65.
The debate comes as baby boomers more broadly are reaching “peak 65” — the biggest number of Americans reaching that age in history.
With that wave, the U.S. is poised to broadly face the question: When is the appropriate age to retire?
More than 11,200 Americans will turn 65 every day — or more than 4.1 million every year — from 2024 through 2027, according to estimates from the Retirement Income Institute at the Alliance for Lifetime Income.
Age 65 has traditionally been thought of as retirement age. The milestone still marks the point at which individuals become eligible for Medicare coverage.
But for Social Security benefits, the full retirement age — when a qualifying worker is eligible for 100% of the benefits they earned — is moving to 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later.
More from Personal Finance:
If you want to age in place in retirement, here’s what to consider
What happens to your Social Security benefits when you die
How to better save for retirement in your 50s
Changing the retirement age is controversial, both in the U.S. and around the world. In France last year, pension reforms that raised the retirement age from 62 to 64 sparked fierce protests.
In the U.S., the Senate is expected to mark up a Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that will consider the pilots’ retirement age. The House version of the legislation moved the retirement age to 67.
This week, a Federal Aviation Administration official told Congress the agency would like to have data to support the move to a higher age. The Air Line Pilots Association, a union, opposes any change and wants to keep the age at 65.
But a group of pilots called Raise the Pilot Age has come together to support increasing their ability to work to age 67.
“Bottom line, I want to keep flying,” said Barry Kendrick, who is president of…
Read the full article here