NEWSWIRE: 7/23/18

  • Gen Xers on average say that the ideal retirement begins at age 60, the lowest age of any generation. Xers are in for a rude awakening when they discover that they have not saved enough for such an early retirement themselves. (Bankrate)
    • NH: Rude awakening, indeed. One clue is the survey's finding that the Silent Generation--whose early wave (born in the late 1920s) actually did retire earlier than any other generation--has a much older estimate (age 65) of the ideal retirement age. What do they know that younger generations don't? Most importantly, they know that every generation, when young, vastly overestimates the odds that it can afford to retire early. If that was true for the Silent, who had everything going for them economically, it will surely be true for Xers, who don't. When they're young, generations don't realize that the actual reason why most people retire early is that they're sick and disabled. A later retirement age actually has a strong positive correlation with income and longevity. And some research shows that this link may even be causal--in other words, that the decision to retire later causes you to live longer. Message to Gen Xers: Listen to this word of wisdom from your parents' generation. Find something you will love to do as you grow older. And, above all, be very careful what you wish for.
  • Boys age 5 to 7 earn an average of $13.80 per week doing household chores, 50% more than girls of the same age group. This study unearths a surprising culprit in the gender pay gap issue: parents. (BusyKid)
    • NH: You can get all riled up about the alleged inequity of this "pay gap." Or you can try to understand how parents, who pay for the chores, have to negotiate with boys and girls who differ significantly in their inclinations and life goals. The study finds that boys, for example, need more incentives than girls to attend to tidiness tasks (like cleaning their room). It also finds that boys are more willing to take on the dirtier and more strenuous outdoor tasks (like mowing the lawn) that neither the girls nor the parents want to do themselves. As ever, prices respond to supply and demand.
  • In truTV’s new game show Paid Off, Millennial (and some Xer) contestants get help with their student loans. Forget fancy cars or dream vacations; in a sign of the times, the ultimate prize for a generation buried in post-grad debt is a zero balance sheet. (MarketWatch)
    • NH: This is new territory. Boomers and Xers, over their lives, have been featured heavily in contest shows that reward the winner with a pile of cash or a dream vacation to some exotic locale. Here is a show focusing on the hardships of young adults and rewarding the winner with an escape from indentured servitude. The only precedent I can think of is "Queen for a Day," a very popular TV contest show in the late 1940s starring young postwar housewives with hard-luck stories (child has polio, husband is unemployed, and so on). Millennial audiences no longer want to see ordinary people get lucky. They would rather watch unlucky people get deliverance.
  • Fully 13.5% of the U.S. population participated in SNAP last year, down slightly from its peak but still well above pre-GFC levels. High food stamp usage paints a picture of an ongoing economic recovery that may have left the poverty-stricken behind. (Bloomberg Business)
  • The share of “socially engaged” 55- to 64-year-olds fell more than 5 percentage points from 1995 to 2012, the largest decline of any age group. Part of the explanation could be that Boomers are busier (with work and family) than earlier generations of elders; alternatively, this notoriously antisocial bunch could simply be more selective of friends. (Stanford Center on Longevity)
    • NH: The eminent sociologist Robert Putnam laid out the generational thesis underlying this trend pretty clearly fifteen years ago in his book, "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community." He showed that roughly two-thirds of the reason Americans are less civic, trusting, and socially engaged than they used to be is cohort replacement: Starting with early-wave Boomers (and even more so with late-wave Boomers and Xers), attitudes and behavior have shifted over time toward more free agency and individualism in a pattern that directly tracks peoples' ages. What's new these days among the 55-to-64 crowd? How about rapidly rising rates of homelessness, divorce, and solo living? These researchers are especially interested in the well-documented link between social disconnection, ill health, and depression.
  • Columnist Anne Vandermay contends that the rise of technology has killed the traditional American rags-to-riches story. Vandermay observes that, today more than ever, the economy favors those who have been afforded certain opportunities early on in life: “In order to drop out of Harvard, first you have to get in.” (Bloomberg Business)
    • NH: There are many drivers here: slower living standard growth among younger cohorts, making it harder for the young to surpass their parents; declining rates of start ups and job turnover (see: "Declining Business Dynamism: A Visual Guide"); and a rising risk-aversion among today's young adults generally. Most Millennials want a great job at a firm like Google; very few want to start a firm like Google. When they do start their own enterprise, Millennials (unlike young Boomers or Xers back in the day) typically enroll the support of their parents. And they mostly accept the IT credentialism of today's nerdocracy. See "The Complacent Class" by Tyler Cowen.
  • Matrimonial lawyers have noticed a Millennial-fueled uptick in prenuptial agreements. In addition to this generation’s natural risk aversion, another contributor is the rising average age of marriage, according to lawyer Louis Cannataro: “I got married at 23, so we put nothing and nothing together… But when someone’s getting married in their 30s, there’s a different approach.” (The New York Times)
    • NH: They're older, they have more of their own wealth, and they're bringing more of their parents' wealth to the table. More easily than older generations, Millennials can approach marriage as a merger contract. "Most of the millennials we have dealt with really consider it a business deal, so there’s very little emotion attached to it,” says one lawyer. (See: "Millennials Keep Financial Secrets From Their Partners.")
  • Economist Michael Strain delves into the mystery of why wage growth is tepid even as unemployment is falling and job openings are rising. Plausible explanations include lingering labor market slack and the rising use of non-wage tools (such as bonuses and perks) to attract and retain employees. (Bloomberg Business)
    • NH: Slack is no longer much of a reason. Nor is the retirement of higher-paid Boomers. (See: "Are Retiring Boomers Suppressing Wage Growth?") Greater reliance on bonuses and benefits, on the other hand, is restraining average wage growth. As is the disproportionate recent growth in lower-wage employment (see the Atlanta Wage Tracker).
  • Columnist Devorah Heitner offers some piece-of-mind tips to parents whose young children want to start a YouTube channel. For today’s protective parents, monitoring and regulating countless hours of online activity has turned into a full-time job. (The Washington Post)
  • More than one-quarter (28%) of Millennials report feeling frequent or constant burnout at work. To some extent, burnout is a symptom of the entry-level jobs that Millennials hold—but employers worried about Millennial turnover would be wise to investigate ways to keep young workers engaged. (Gallup)

            DID YOU KNOW?

            Bring-Your-Child-to-Work Day, Every Day. We’ve written about the launch of co-working startups that appeal to employees young and old. (See: “So Happy (Living and Working) Together.”) Now, these firms have a new target: working parents. Take Nido, a North Carolina-based co-working space that provides onsite Montessori preschool services for members. Nido functions as a co-op whereby parents can earn discounts by volunteering a few hours each week. The Riveter, meanwhile, aims more broadly to encourage work-life balance and overall wellness. The Seattle- and L.A.- based co-working space partners with local child care providers to offer members a robust array of choices, and offers amenities such as nursing rooms for working mothers. On top of that, the Riveter also offers daily yoga classes and end-of-workday meditation sessions. The Jane Club, founded by actress June Diane Raphael and TV producer Jess Zaino, is a high-end option specifically crafted for L.A. mothers who want to work in style. The space includes onsite daycare, laundry services, salon treatments, yoga and dance classes, and more.