Step 2: Retirement Age and Life Span > Decedent/Spouse > Retirement Age

Worklife Expectancy: A value derived from a set of tables which estimates the number of years an individual in a cohort with similar characteristics of sex, educational attainment, and work status will be employed before leaving the work force permanently. This measure accounts for the probability of living and the probability of being in the work force, but not the probability of being employed during this time.

The inputs explained below determine how the decedent or spouse's worklife expectancy is calculated. The calculated value is also affected by the individual's gender and reference age. In addition the individual's race can be a factor; see Race Data in the Worklife Studies.

Worklife Expectancy Inputs

WorklifeExpectancyInputs

Data

Determines which academic study is used to calculate the worklife expectancy. Also determines which settings are available in the next two options. For example, when you select the Median Years to Retirement study, the Employment Status option is disabled. This is because that study does not contain data for employed individuals versus unemployed individuals or versus the entire workforce. For the data citation of a specific study, see Worklife Expectancy Data.

Employment Status

Sets the employment status of the decedent or spouse. Available options are determined by the Data setting. Disabled when the Median Years to Retirement study is selected.

Education

Sets the level of education attained by the decedent or spouse. Available options are determined by the Data setting.

Race Data in the Worklife Studies

Two of the seven worklife studies contain data for race:

Contain Race Data	Do Not Contain Race Data
Bureau of Labor Statistics (1986)	Hunt, Pickersgill & Rutemiller (2001)
Ciecka, Donley & Goldman (2000)	Krueger, Skoog & Ciecka (2007)
	Median Years to Retirement (2001)
	Skoog & Ciecka (2003)
	Skoog, Ciecka & Krueger (2011)

Note:

Race data is available for all of the Employment Status settings, but is not available for a specific education level. To apply race data, you must select Not Applied for the Education option.