Bargaining Power Is Falling for America's Older Workers: Policy makers need to strengthen older workers' fallback positions.

Older workers need a good fallback position as leverage for a better job offer. As retirement income erodes, older workers lose bargaining power. A universal pension plan, like proposed Guaranteed Retirement Accounts, is a policy that strengthens the fallback position of older workers and improves older adults' jobs. An Older Workers Bureau at the U.S. Department of Labor should be established to investigate older workers' working conditions, to formulate standards and policies to promote the welfare of wage-earning older people, and to advance their opportunities for profitable and decent employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]