Why You Can Still Work After Age 65 and Why You Should
Turning 65 doesn't come with a legal expiration date on your career, even though plenty of people act like it does.
Federal law backs this up directly. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act protects workers 40 and older, and there's no mandatory retirement age for the vast majority of jobs in this country. Nothing about qualifying for Medicare requires you to stop working, and nothing about your age alone can force you out.
More people are acting on that freedom every year. Federal labor data shows nearly one in five Americans 65 and older are working today, roughly double the rate from the mid-1980s. This isn't a fluke, it's a real, decades-long shift.
There's also a concrete financial reason to consider it. If you delay claiming Social Security past your full retirement age, your monthly benefit grows by roughly 8 percent for every year you wait, up until age 70. That's a guaranteed increase few other financial moves can match.
Beyond the numbers, staying engaged, useful, and connected to a purpose is part of what we mean by Usefulness in our H.U.W.A. approach to a high-quality life. If you're weighing whether working longer makes sense for you, that's worth talking through, especially alongside your Medicare choice.