A report in Kiplinger’s notes that roughly 25 percent of the employees of Abbott Labs are age 50 or older, and in five years that number could top more than 40 percent.
The demographics are likely similar at many other large drug companies. Abbott is experimenting with a kind of “phased retirement” for some employees as they approach age 62:
- Workers 55 or older with 10 years of service can scale back to four days a week.
- Or they can take up to five weeks of extra vacation.
- Or they can keep the same schedule but reduce their responsibilities — for example, dropping out of management.
- Workers keep health, pension and 401(k) benefits as if they were still working full-time, but they can’t collect their pension.
- They must mentor younger workers if they take part in the program.
Of course, employees must survive the layoffs that are washing over the industry in order to take advantage of all this … Abbott is only maintaining its numbers because it is going through a strict regime of laying off staff wherever it can.
