Activists participate in a rally urging the expansion of Social Security benefits in front of the White House July 13, 2015.
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Raising the retirement age is an emotional issue.
For evidence, just look at proposals to move up the full retirement age for Social Security. Even the idea upsets advocates who want to see the program expanded and individuals receiving benefits. Because of that, lawmakers tend to tiptoe around the issue.
Outside the U.S., French citizens have taken to the streets to protest President Emmanuel Macron's plan to overhaul the country's pension system. Among the proposed changes is raising the retirement age to 64 from 62 .
Most workers do not want to be told they have to work longer.
Yet it turns out that in the U.S., many already anticipate extending their working years, according to recent research[1] from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.
A majority of workers — 54% — said they expect to stop working sometime after age 65 or never retire at all, the research found.
Meanwhile, just 24% said they plan to retire at 65, and 22% said they plan to retire earlier.
"People want to extend their working lives and plan to keep working in retirement," said Catherine Collinson, CEO and president of the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies. "By and large, many simply have not yet saved enough to retire comfortably."
More than half of workers — 55% — said they plan to work either part-time or full time in retirement. While most of those respondents cited financial reasons for those plans, many also pointed to other reasons, many related to healthy aging, such...