Taken as a whole, the increase in retirement among older workers came predominantly from those 65 and older, with the share of adults in that age group who considered themselves retired rising 1.7 percent, compared with 0.3 percentage points for those between the ages of 55 and 64. But grouping all older adults together masks some striking inequalities, the report said.

For instance, for older adults without a college degree, retirement increased across the board as a result of the pandemic, not just for those over age 65. At the height of unemployment in April 2020, workers between the ages of 55 and 64 without a college degree were 67 percent more likely to experience unemployment than their college-educated counterparts, indicating that many were likely forced into an involuntary retirement.

This could be due to worse employment prospects and lower job security for older workers without a college degree than for those who graduated from college.

In addition, jobs available to unemployed non-college workers are more likely to be physically demanding while paying less, said the report.

The typical worker in this category also was not financially prepared for retirement before the pandemic. The report found older workers without a college degree had median household retirement savings of only $9,000 in 2019, compared with $167,000 for older working households with a college degree. This disparity can lead to those without a college degree facing poverty or near-poverty during retirement, said the report.

Adults between the ages of 55 and 64 with a college degree, on the other hand, were less likely to retire during the pandemic. Retirement rates among this category actually decreased 4 percent, the study found.

This indicates workers in this group had better job prospects and faced lower rates of job loss during the pandemic, although they may have faced reduced hours or furloughs, which may have driven a propensity for them to delay retirement to make up for lost income.

"The evidence is consistent with college-educated workers being more likely to delay retirement, so we actually see a decrease in retirement rates for college-educated workers in that younger category of 55 to 64," said Davis. "For those aged 65 and over, you see a sharp increase in retirement rates for the college educated."

College-educated workers over 65 increased retirement by 3.2 percent, driven both by involuntary retirement resulting from job loss as well as accelerated voluntary retirement among affluent workers.

The pandemic also highlighted inequalities along racial divides, with older Black workers being more likely to be pushed into early retirement than white older workers, the study found. The probability of a Black older adult aged 55-64 without a college degree being retired increased 9.2 percent compared to an increase of 7.5 percent for white non-college adults. 

For college-educated Black adults, retirement rates decreased at all ages, indicating this category delayed retirement even over age 65. The study noted college-educated Black workers aged 55-64 have better job prospects than non-college-educated Black workers, allowing them to remain in the workforce longer.

However, they have substantially less wealth than white workers with median retirement savings of $50,000 compared with $206,000 for white college-educated households.

This may explain why white workers over the age of 65 opted to retire in greater numbers during the pandemic while Black workers of the same age elected to stay in the labor force if they could, the report said.

"Black college-educated workers 65 and older we would assume would have retired in greater numbers, but they actually decreased their retirement rate throughout the pandemic," said Davis. "That comes out clearly in the data and is consistent with a racial wealth gap explanation, where older black workers don't have the same level of wealth as white college-educated workers and then when the pandemic hit, the shock and uncertainty associated with it perhaps prompted people to push back their retirement dates, if they could, in order to make up a loss or just be in a more secure place financially."

For any older worker forced into an unplanned early retirement, the consequences are substantial.

"We know that the last years before retirement are often crucial years for saving for older workers preparing for retirement," said Davis. "An employment shock at that age can be harmful to savers at that age and lead to lower retirement incomes and low retirement wealth for the rest of one's life."

The report suggests several policy recommendations that could help older workers who face forced retirement, many of which address the fact that older workers are substantially more expensive for employers to insure than their younger counterparts.

Among the recommendations are strict anti-discrimination laws backed up with enforcement that level the playing field for older workers competing for jobs. Although laws are already on the books that prohibit age discrimination, they have been weakened by court decisions, said the report. 

In addition, the report calls for legislators to lower the Medicare eligibility age to 50 and make Medicare the first payer. Doing so would lower employers' costs to provide health insurance coverage to older workers, which in turn could help prevent involuntary retirements while increasing health coverage for older workers.

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