WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Evelyn Adams, who turns 69 this month, had hoped to fully retire by now. She has worked over 50 years in the customer service industry, beginning as a waitress at the age of 15 to her present job as a cashier at the Co-op Food Store in White River Junction — a supermarket where she has worked for nearly 18 years, dating back to when it was P&C Foods.

“I was going to retire but then decided that my income was not enough and that I would have to keep working for a while,” Adams said in an interview.

Due to respiratory health problems, Adams has cut her work back to one or two days a week, though she is occasionally called to fill an uncovered shift. When at work, she wears a portable oxygen tank that holds four hours per charge. She can sometimes work up to five or six hours per shift provided her oxygen saturation level stays above 90%.

“We all deal with what we have to deal with,” Adams said about her health challenges.

Adams is among a number of older adults in the Upper Valley and across the country who have continued paid employment instead of taking up a full retirement.

Nationally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there are more than 10.5 million workers over the age of 65.

Their reasons may vary, as might their work schedules. Some older people are seeking additional income to help cover their living expenses. Others are driven more by a desire to stay productive or socially connected. In many cases their reasons are all of the above.

As the average human life expectancy increases, advocates for seniors say that employers, as well as the general society, need to reevaluate how they perceive older adults and their ability to contribute to the workforce.

“The idea that you retire and (go) sit in a rocking chair is an out-of-date view,” said Rebecca Sky, executive director of the New Hampshire Commission on Aging, an advisory group on policies and initiatives related to aging.

A need for purposeand social connection

At age 75, Joan Ilves, of Charlestown, is working her second career.

A former English teacher who also substituted in public schools and taught homeschool, Ilves now works as an in-home care provider for older adults and people with chronic illness.

For eight years Ilves has provided care for Tom Kangas, a Charlestown resident with Parkinson’s disease. She originally began working with him because Ilves’ husband also suffers from Parkinson’s and she wanted to learn more about the disease.

Ilves typically works 23 hours a week, during which she shops and prepares meals, helps Kangas wash and dress, pays bills and arranges his medical appointments. A few weeks ago, Kangas had a bad fall that resulted in him needing additional help, such as getting in and out of bed.

“Now he has been approved for 40 hours a week by Medicaid, so I am filling those 40 hours, hoping that sometime soon my agency will find somebody else to help relieve me of some of those hours,” Ilves said. “Because, right now, I’m working seven days a week.”

Ilves’ employer, Ascentria Care Alliance, is a community support nonprofit based in Concord. The multi-service organization provides in-home care to 400 people around the state who need help due to age, illness or disability.

Ilves said she discovered her interest in caregiving when she began helping an older neighbor who had fallen and broken her hip.

“When (she) died a little over three years ago, I kind of missed doing it,” Ilves said. “You get up in the morning and you have somebody to look after every day. Then all of a sudden she died, and I didn’t have anybody to look after. I felt kind of lost.”

Sky, at the Commission on Aging, noted that the human desire to be productive does not dissipate with age.

“People both need to work and want to work,” Sky said. “They want to contribute. We all need social connection. And for many of us, for much of our lives, we got that social connection through our workplace.”

Norbert Jarvis, 74, retired from his work as an electrician four years ago. Up until that time, he had been working 20 hours a week at HB Plumbing and Heating in Springfield, Vt.

While Jarvis finds his social connection these days at the Bugbee Senior Center in White River Junction — where he has been an active member for several years — Jarvis still stays partially employed to keep busy.

After retiring from HB Plumbing and Heating, Jarvis took on a part-time job with Vital Delivery Solutions, a courier service based in Williston, Vt.

Two days a week, he transports medical supplies from Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center to Littleton Regional and shuttles the used supplies back to DHMC to be sterilized. The trip between each hospital is 66 miles. Jarvis said each work shift is 4.5 hours, totaling nine hours a week.

“It just occupies my time,” Jarvis said. “After working for so many years and then being (completely) out of it, I tried to take a couple of years and just relax, but it just catches up with you. I’ve got to be doing something.”

Ilves echoed a similar sentiment about the difficulty of not being active or having a sense of purpose.

“If you’re healthy enough to work, it’s not good to just be idle and not have a purpose in life,” Ilves said. “Everyone needs a purpose in life.”

Ilves’ husband, who is 77, is assisted by two in-home care providers who work in alternating shifts. Both providers are over the age of 70.

“They’re both in my age bracket,” Ilves said. “And that is kind of becoming a commonality in the home care industry. … Because young people can’t afford to do this job.”

Amy Moore, director of in-home care at Ascentria, said that 25% of the organization’s 300 employed caregivers are age 65 or older.

While the current pay scale, between $13 to $15, can be a detriment to attracting younger workers, Moore is encouraged by new funding and programs that the state passed into law this year.

The 2024-2025 state budget includes $134 million to increase Medicaid rate reimbursements to community care programs, including in-home care services.

These Medicaid rate increases will occur in three funding phases, including a smaller 3% rate increase that took effect on July 1.

Moore said a second round of funding was scheduled to occur before the end of this year, though the state has not specified when that money will be available. The third and largest installment of funding is scheduled for next year.

While Ascentria hopes to attract younger workers to the in-home care industry — in part to replace care providers who have retired due to age — the organization highly values its older workers, according to Moore.

“There are so many people who are over the age of 65 who have more energy (than many younger adults), and it’s important to highlight that and to give them that opportunity,” Moore said.

Retirees often find in-home care work ideal because of its flexibility, Moore said. The work hours can be tailored to a person’s schedule, and the social connection is often as beneficial to the service providers as to the clients.

Ilves said one of the biggest rewards of the job is the time she spends building relationships with new people, including clients and their families.

“Some of them were educated, professional people with impressive resumes, and some had only high school diplomas, but they were all intelligent and productive,” Ilves said. “They had taught school, created and ran successful businesses, participated and assumed leadership positions in community organizations and raised large, successful families, including children that were adopted. … I learned things from every one of them, and I can honestly say I have loved all of them and count it a privilege to have spent time with them in their later years.”

‘Every bit helps’

Even older adults who work to stay productive said having the additional income is important.

“The cost of living is just so high these days,” said Jarvis, the courier service driver. “You go into a grocery store now, and what you used to buy for $100 you’ll be lucky if you’re going to pay under $200 at this point.”

His courier work only pays about $100 a week, “though every bit helps,” said Jarvis, whose only other income is his Social Security payments. He is also insured through Medicare.

When his wife Carol died in April, Jarvis left their home in Windsor and moved in with their daughter in Weathersfield. He pays $1,000 a month in rent, but his living expenses are about half of what they were when he had his own home, since he is no longer paying for upkeep and expenses such as home insurance, utilities and cable television.

With people living longer today than they did decades ago, older adults have to think differently about their long-term economic security, including whether to defer their retirement to a later time, Sky noted.

According to population data from the United Nations, the average life expectancy of Americans increased by 10 years 1960 to present, 69.7 years to 79.11.

“And there was a recent increase to Social Security, but when you’re living on a fixed income, the Social Security (amount) doesn’t change all that often,” Sky said. “And then there’s keeping up with the inflation and cost. I get sticker shock when I go to the grocery store these days.”

Housing is a major cost concern for older adults, largely due to the lack of affordable options to downsize one’s home, according to Sky.

“If you’re on a fixed income and you’re renting, if the rent keeps going up, where do you go to live?” Sky said.

Adams lives in a studio apartment that she has rented since the 1990s. She pays $815 a month. The apartment is located within easy walking distance to the store where she works, though she recently inherited a 2017 Hyundai Accent from a friend. She now drives to work due to her health.

Her Social Security payments cover the cost of car insurance and registration.

Adams’ last paycheck was “a little over $400” in net wages for 26 hours of work that week.

“And nothing is cheap anymore,” Adams said. “Once things go up in price, they stay up. … Life is expensive.”

Ilves said she and her husband still live at their house, though it gets costly and difficult to manage with age. The house is split into three separate living units, which had allowed her in-laws to live with them at one time, as well as Ilves’ mother and uncle. Ilves still rents out one of the apartments, though it’s difficult finding responsible and reliable tenants.

“We just had a roof put on our house for $11,000, and we just had a generator replaced, so it’s very helpful to have that money (from working),” Ilves said.

Eliminating age biasin the workforce

The desire of employers to “hire somebody younger” or “somebody who is going to stay in this position a long time” can create an age bias where the abilities and value of older workers gets overlooked.

“The fact is that people both need to or want to work at a variety of ages,” Sky said. “And we need to make that a possibility.”

The Commission on Aging advocates for the adoption of “age-friendly workplace” policies that would help employers recognize and avoid age bias in their hiring, training and retention of workers. Some companies, Sky said, have created training programs for employees on cultivating an intergenerational workplace, while other employers have found creative staffing solutions to utilize workers of all ages, such as flexible scheduling, remote work or job sharing, where two or more employees share a single position.

Adams praised the White River Junction Co-op Food Store for being an age-friendly workplace.

She is one of three older adults who works at the grocery store.

Some employers are also developing care assistance programs to help employees find in-home care resources for their loved ones, such as a spouse or a parent who lives with them, Sky said.

“Let’s say you are 62 (years old) and you have a parent who needs additional supports to stay independent,” Sky said. “Instead of taking time off work, (the contracted program) can help you find the resources and arrange for them, so you’re not taking time off work to figure out what’s needed.”

Ilves said her husband’s access to in-home care services allows her to continue working, which also helps her understand Parkinson’s disease so she can help care for her husband.

One of her husband’s caregivers is a retired nurse, who works with a team of other nurses to care for a number of clients.

“So they cover for each other and share clients with each other, and you can see that they do it because they want to remain useful and productive and contribute to the society,” Ilves said.

Patrick Adrian may be reached at padrian@ vnews.com or 603-727-3216.

CORRECTION: Norbert Jarvis is the retired electrician who still works part time as a medical supplies courier. An earlier version of this story spelled his first name incorrectly.