12/27/2005

Associated Press

Over the past 14 years in the United States, the number of women between the ages of 70 and 74 who were still working doubled from 324,000 to 618,000, according to the Labor Department.

Many of these women work, not because they want to, but because they have no choice. Shrinking Social Security checks, smaller or nonexistent pensions, longer life spans and bad financial planning can all keep 70-somethings in the work force.

At 74, Marie Maes is not your typical Seattle job seeker. After four decades working in Colorado hospitals and Seattle nursing homes, the licensed practical nurse lives just above the poverty line on little more than $12 a day after rent.

"Of course I need to get back to work," said Maes. Asked whether she considers herself poor, she replied, "I never gave it a thought, but I guess I am."

More elderly Seattleites are looking for work these days. Single, older women like Maes are particularly vulnerable. Nearly one in five of them lives in poverty, more than three times the rate of their married counterparts, according to a National Women's Law Center analysis of 2002 Social Security data.

With no pension, $824 a month from Social Security and nothing in savings, Maes has no choice but getting back to work. Her situation is not uncommon: She started work later in life, made less money and relied on her husband to prepare for their retirement.

"We're still in that Beaver Cleaver generation," said Marge Hampton, 70, outreach chairwoman for Crone of Puget Sound, a community group for older women. "We looked to the man to take care of us. (Then we) woke up one day and said, 'Oh my God, what is here?'."

Maes has plenty of company at the local unemployment office. The number of older people seeking work with the help of the Seattle Mayor's Office for Senior Citizens jumped more than 200 percent over the past five years to 671 people.

"It's getting worse and I think it will continue to get worse," said Alana McIalwain, the office's employment supervisor, who noted that the waiting list for services is nearly 200 people long. "(Women) can't survive without going back to work."

One city-sponsored job club for seniors drew so many people earlier this year that registration forms quickly ran out and 140 people jammed into a room that could seat only 45. Several dozen seniors listened to the presentation from the hallway.

"The problem is they look at you right away, but you can tell that they're not looking for: people who are over 55," said Tonja Larson, a job seeker, who has 20 years of accounting experience.

Maes said she gets more than money from working. Still fit at her age — she walks at least 1.5 miles a day or does aerobics in her apartment — she sees no reason to give up working permanently.

"I don't think the reaction is to sit back and feel sorry for ourselves," she said. "In other words, we are not dead yet."

She is planning to hang up her scrubs and leave behind nursing work, which left her with an injured back and a series of other ailments, for counseling. The career change will require some training, but Maes expects to get back to work in 2006.

"I would never be rich, at least I could make ends meet," Maes said.

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Information from: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://www.seattle-pi.com/