No Rest for Educated Women

June 5, 2002 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - College-educated women are more likely to work past retirement age than those with only a high school education are, new research shows.

According to Penn State University labor economist, Elizabeth Hill,

  • 32% of female college graduates work beyond the age of 70,
  • compared to 13% of women with only a high school education.

Hill says she expected to find less educated women working later in life because they needed the money, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Instead, she discovered that flexibility on the job, not money, was the primary factor in determining whether women remained in the workforce.

Her research also shows that women with more education worked more weeks per year, but fewer hours per week.

According to the report, college educated women:

  • worked an average of 48 weeks per year,
  • compared to 42 for high school educated women, and
  • 20 hours per week,
  • compared to 23 worked by high school graduates.

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