Six of 10 Workers over 60 Years Old

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Costa Rica's work force is getting older rapidly. A University of Costa Rica study reveals that some 128,000 of its work force are more than 60 years old. The study was part of the 2011 census.

Statistician Juan Diego Trejos of UCR explained that part of the reason the elderly are working past retirement is that the pensions are simply not keeping up with the cost of living. Also, the entire population is growing older as the birth rate has dropped to 0.9% of women of child-bearing age.

The country's pensions were never lavish except in the highest small percentage of the population and have not kept up with inflation. Moreover, the rising demographics have meant more workers are retirement age while fewer younger workers enter the work force to pay into the pension fund.

In 1960, the birth rate was  an average of 7.1 per woman. By 2000 it was down to 2.4. According to Miguel Gutierrez of the think tank that puts out the State of the Nation report, by 2050 the country will look like developed nations with in expectation of longer life and inadequate pensions, workers continue labor long past retirement.

But neither Costa Rica nor its developed friends are alone -- a report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean say this will be the trend throughout the region until at least the middle of the century.

The census study shows the aging worker is at a disadvantage. He is less educated generally, having been school aged in 1940 or before when getting an education was harder in this country.

In fact workers over 65 have only 4.8 years of schooling as an average. (The emphasis on funding education did not take hold here until after the 1948 civil war.) Moreover, life expectancy has raised to 78 years average.

But one advantage the older worker has that cannot be equaled by their younger competitors in the work force -- experience. But all too often they find themselves the target of discrimination and doubts about whether their health can stand up to work requirements.

However, many jobs they could physically and psychologically handle as well -- or better, being more steady than their youthful competitors -- are those of high technology. These remain closed to them as well as training.

It is not surprising that wages only accounts for 11.2% of their earnings. The rest comes from pensions and family contributions or other sources.