Ageism requires ‘culture change’

"When have you ever seen a 65-year-old with a Zimmer frame?" Retirement Commissioner Diane Maxwell

Retirement Commissioner Diane Maxwell is calling for measures to tackle ageism to improve Kiwi retirements.

She has released recommendations for beefing up KiwiSaver, calling for higher savings rates, and reigniting the debate on raising the age NZ Super is paid from to 67.

But to do so without tackling the blight of ageism would be unfair as older people can struggle to stay employed towards the end of their working lives, she said.

‘‘Age discrimination in the labour market is real and requires a culture change.’’

She had spoken with workers in their 50s who were ‘‘genuinely frightened’’ they would never work again after losing their jobs.

‘‘Many people struggle to find work if they have been out of the workforce, despite their best efforts,’’ she said.

Unemployment late in life could consume retirement savings before NZ Super kicks in.

Maxwell called for a ‘‘national conversation’’ on ageism, and new tools such as financial help for older people to retrain and seek work, as well as a change of culture moving to more job-sharing and flexible work.

New Zealand should also investigate the Australian Re-starter employer subsidy programme, she said.

She had heard first-hand how ageist the recruitment process could be. One recruitment agency told her it did not forward the CVs of people over the age of 50 to employers.

Maxwell has been irritated by media depictions of older people, particularly one reference to workers aged over 60 as bringing Zimmer frames to the office.

‘‘When have you ever seen a 65-year-old with a Zimmer frame?’’

In a paper from 2009, Statistics New Zealand’s Sylvia Dixon found it took older people to hire older people, and that there may be a tipping point in industries and companies when the ageism of the young no longer sets hiring culture.

‘‘Across industries, we find a strong positive correlation between the proportion of existing employees who were older and the proportion of new hires who were older,’’ Dixon reported. ‘‘In other words, industries that employ a high/low proportion of older workers tend to recruit a similar proportion of older workers within their new employee intakes.’’

She found private businesses were less likely to hire and retain older people than the public service.

Projections released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment earlier this year showed how important older workers will be.

Older women tend to fare better in employment than older men, which appears to reflect the sectors they are more likely to work in such as aged care, education and cleaning, which all employ a higher proportion of older people than other industries.