Who Gets To Retire?

On average, the retirement age in Australia has climbed significantly over the past two decades. In 2000, the average retirement age was 54.4 years.

In 2022, it had surged to 64.8 years, indicating that more Australians are staying in the workforce longer.

But when you look at the data, you can see that there are disparities and some people have more freedom in choosing when to retire while others are stuck in jobs they might have found increasingly harder to perform well in due to physical or mental health challenges.

Andrew Drakeford is one out of around 239,000 agricultural workers in Australia who, on average, have the highest retirement age.

He owns A&C Drakeford, along with his wife Christine, managing 16 employees during all seasons of the year.

Andrew works in silviculture, which is all about controlling the health of forests. But taking care of forests is hard physical work - something that, at 63, he is finding increasingly difficult to do.

"Once you get to my age you can’t do what the younger guys do, the physically work."

He knows he should be planning his retirement but instead he’s taken the increasingly popular route of ‘semi-retirement’.

"I think health wise I’m glad I did step away and semi retire."

The steady rise in retirement age highlights the pressures many Australians face as they near retirement. The cost of living has escalated, with housing, healthcare, and everyday expenses outpacing wage growth for many. As a result, what once might have been a comfortable retirement age now requires additional years of work to secure financial stability.

Significant jumps in the average retirement age, particularly from 59 years in 2006 to 63.2 years in 2015, reflect periods of economic strain where saving enough for retirement became increasingly challenging.

By 2022, the retirement age reached a new peak of nearly 65 years, underscoring the extent to which Australians are compelled to extend their working lives.

Retirement is often delayed not by choice but by necessity as Australians grapple with ensuring their savings can support them in a climate of rising living costs. But which industries face the greatest difficulties with retirement?

Agriculture, forestry and fishing - which is the industry Andrew works in, have the oldest average retirement age, 68.3. Some of these jobs also happen to fall under the most dangerous in the world. This highlights where experience is highly valued and longer careers are common.

Meanwhile, real estate and manufacturing comes second and third.

Further, in Australia those in the agricultural sector tend to retire much later then others, or don’t retire at all. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 2011, 23% of farmers were over 65, compared to 3% in other occupations. 

"I think in agriculture a lot of people have their own business, and they keep it going, I think semi-retirement is pretty popular within agriculture," Andrew said. 

Andrew also follows the popular agricultural trend of inviting family members, particularly their children, to work alongside them. 

Four out of five of Andrew and Christine’s children work at A & C Drakeford, holding various titles including administrator and operations manager. 

This comfort in knowing his business is being taken care of has let Andrew to relieve himself from some of the more physical tasks within silviculture. 

“I needed that push for someone to tell me to step back”.

But it was not just physical health. Mental health also pushed Andrew to step back. This is a part of a bigger pattern of mental health problems in agriculture in general.

Of 1,338 Australian agricultural workers surveyed in 2023 by Statista, 45% said they had experienced depression and 30% said they had attempted self-harm or suicide. 

To add to these health challenges, agriculture is also among some of the most dangerous industries in Australia. In 2023 a total of 32 on farm deaths were reported, adding to the 1,710 deaths since 2002, with 20% of these deaths caused by heavy machinery such as tractors.

What about the youngest? Financial and insurance services have the third youngest average retirement age at 64.3, after mining and telecommunications industries.

Senior director for risk management at NAB, 52 year-old Tim Wilkes has achieved financial success throughout his 30 year career at the bank. He is no rush to retire, but he is also grateful for having the options to retire when he feels the time is right.

And from his experience working with agricultural workers through his work in finance, he is sympathetic to the struggle’s agricultural workers face.

“How these farmers deal with the uncontrollable I would struggle with, mental health within the agricultural community is a huge issue."

"The difference there is the certainty of income, I know every fortnight x amount of money is going to come into my bank account, I don’t envy them at all," he said.

“I look at a lot of people who are really focussed on retirement, but even at 52 I’m not thinking about it too much. His 30-year career within the same company is something he finds unusual, saying there is no one beyond 65 at the NAB building in Melbourne and that most of them are a lot younger than he is.

Having reached financial freedom and job satisfaction, it’s hard to understand why Tim has made no plans to retire.

“There will come a time, but retirements not been an obsession, almost to my detriment, maybe I’m not planning enough. I just think the day will come and I’ll stop.”

Perhaps, like agriculture, it’s a hereditary thing, his father owned his own business and worked far beyond the average 65 years old. Similar to what Andrew believed, maybe owning your own business relieves some of the hassle and irritation involved in working. 

When you own your own business like Andrew or Tim’s father, you have employees and clients to worry about, things you can’t just drop in a day. In some cases it can take years to hand over the reigns.

When the time for retirement comes, Tim is also thinking about the semi-retirement route, in the form of consulting, still with NAB.

“I can see myself doing a little bit of consulting past retirement to keep my mind active,” he said. 

He’ll join thousands of Australians who prefer to ease into retirement through consulting or semi-retirement. A 2024 study by Allianz shows that 38% of Australians close to retirement will actively seek out part time alternatives, and 77% are open to considering it. 

Australia’s increasing retirement age is evidence of both the needs and wants of its citizens. For many, it’s a necessity to work past the average 65, especially within agricultural businesses, and for others career satisfaction and enjoyment are what pushes them.

Regardless of the reason, it’s clear the average age for each industry isn’t a hard line and there’s a plethora of reasons why this is the case. 

For Andrew Drakeford, a 63-year-old who only just began his semi-retirement journey, there is no plan to fully retire for fear of “dropping off the perch”.

While 52-year-old Tim Wilkes enjoys his craft too much to worry about his retirement plan at the moment, one that should materialise in just over ten years, if he’s to go by the national average. 

Behind the numbers and the data, there are complex lives and circumstances. But looking at the average shows that while some have freedom to choose when to retire, other people have to consider more things despite the physical and mental health challenges of working as you get older.