Truth, Justice, and America’s Aging Workforce

About the Speaker

Beth Truesdale ’97

A St. Olaf College alumna, B.A. Chemistry and English, Summa cum laude, 1997 and Researcher at Harvard’s Center for Population and Development Studies.

Beth received a Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University in 2017. She also holds degrees from St. Olaf College in Minnesota (1997) and the University of Oxford (1999 B.A. and 2000 M St. Theology) where she was a Rhodes Scholar.

She is co-editing a volume titled Is Working Longer in the U.S. in Jeopardy?, which gathers an interdisciplinary community of top scholars to examine how the contexts that shape individuals’ likelihood of working longer are changing across cohorts, and how these contexts affect some population groups — especially racial minorities and lower-income workers — more than others. This project has the potential to influence public policies that improve the workplace for older employees and to increase the public’s understanding of aging and labor force challenges.

Beth has a longstanding interest in the relationship between evidence and public policy. She previously contributed to several projects designed to improve the use of evidence in services for children and families in the United Kingdom, and worked on disability policy at the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Research by Beth Truesdale

1. Truesdale, Beth and Jencks, Christopher. “Income Inequality and Health: Strong Theories, Weaker Evidence.”  Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research (2016).
2. Truesdale, Beth and Jencks, Christopher. “The Health Effects of Income Inequality: Averages and Disparities.”  Annual Review of Public Health (2016).
3. Truesdale, Beth.” Individuals shouldn’t have to bear burden of a secure retirement.” The Boston Globe (2019).

CITED WORKS (IN ORDER OF REFERENCE)

1. Sources of Income for Older Americans. AARP Public Policy Institute (2012).
2. Johnson, Richard W. & Gosselin, Peter. How Secure Is Employment at Older Ages? Urban Institute (2018).
3. Neumark, David, et al. Is it harder for older workers to find jobs? New and improved evidence from a field experiment (2015, revised 2017).
4. Gatta, Mary. Waiting on Retirement: Aging and Economic Insecurity in Low-Wage Work. Stanford University Press, 2018 (p. 45). 
5. Texas Roadhouse to Pay $12 Million to Settle EEOC Age Discrimination Lawsuit. U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2017).
6. Chetty, R., Stepner, M., Abraham, S., Lin, S., Scuderi, B., Turner, N., Bergeron, A., & Cutler, D. (2016). The Association Between Income and Life Expectancy in the United States, 2001-2014. JAMA, 315(16), 1750–1766. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2016.4226
7. Shiv, B., & Fedorikhin, A. (1999). Heart and Mind in Conflict: The Interplay of Affect and Cognition in Consumer Decision Making. Journal of Consumer Research, 26(3), 278-292. doi:10.1086/209563
8. 40.4 million people provided unpaid eldercare in 2017–18. U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics (2019).
9. Long-Term Support and Services. AARP Public Policy Institute (2017). 
10. The 2019 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds. Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors’ Insurance and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund (pp. 2-3).