Millions of older workers lost their jobs during the Covid-19 recession.

Between March and April 2020, 5.7 million workers ages 55 and up lost their jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute’s analysis of federal data.

Now, five years since the onset of the pandemic, some older workers may be benefitting from policies that help them extend their careers.

“We’re seeing more and more employers putting in benefits and programs that help retain some of that older workforce,” said Carly Roszkowski, vice president of financial resilience programming at AARP.

These programs include phased retirement plans, part-time schedules and remote or hybrid work options, Roszkowski said.

Money is still the main reason why people want to stay in the workforce longer, particularly as inflation has pushed prices higher, according to Roszkowski. But there are also other motivators, including social connections, a sense of purpose or meaningful work that may help inspire individuals to continue to work.

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One lasting impact of the pandemic — increased flexibility to work remotely — may be helping some older workers delay retirement, according to new research from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

The research finds that an individual who is working remotely is 1.4 percentage points less likely to retire than a worker in an otherwise comparable situation.

Based on those results, that could enable workers to extend their careers by almost a full year.

“If they delay claiming Social Security for that year, or delay digging into their 401(k) for that year, or contribute to their 401(k) for that year, that’s all going to be good for their finances,” said Geoffrey Sanzenbacher, a research fellow at the Center for Retirement Research and professor of the practice of economics at Boston College.

Whether or not individuals can work remotely comes down to employer preference. For example, some companies — JPMorgan, AT&T, Amazon and Dell — have moved to five-day in-office policies. The federal government, which has a workforce that skews older, has also moved to enforce in-person work policies under President Donald Trump.

Research suggests older workers benefit from remote work. In particular, the employment rate of older workers who have a disability increased by 10% following the pandemic, according to the Center for Retirement Research.

To be sure, not all careers may allow for remote work.

House Republicans have a plan to drastically change how millions of Americans repay their student debt.

Under the GOP’s new proposal, known as the Student Success and Taxpayer Savings Plan, there would be just two repayment options for those with federal student loans. Currently, borrowers have about 12 ways to repay their student debt, according to higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.

If the GOP plan is enacted, borrowers would be able to pay back their debt through a plan with fixed payments over 10 to 25 years, or via an income-driven repayment plan, called the “Repayment Assistance Plan.”

Under the RAP plan, monthly bills for borrowers would be set as a share of their income, said Jason Delisle, a nonresident senior fellow at the Urban Institute. The percentage of income borrowers’ would have to pay rises with their earnings, starting at 1% and going as high as 10%.

House Republicans unveiled their agenda to overhaul the student loan and financial aid system at the end of April, in an effort to tout savings for President Donald Trump’s planned tax cuts.

Here’s what monthly bills for student loan borrowers could be if the proposal becomes law.

If you’re eager to increase your retirement savings, a lesser-known 401(k) feature could significantly boost your nest egg, financial advisors say. 

For 2025, you can defer up to $23,500 into your 401(k), plus an extra $7,500 in “catch-up contributions” if you’re age 50 and older. That catch-up contribution jumps to $11,250 for investors age 60 to 63.

Some plans offer after-tax 401(k) contributions on top of those caps. For 2025, the max 401(k) limit is $70,000, which includes employee deferrals, after-tax contributions, company matches, profit sharing and other deposits.

If you can afford to do this, “it’s an amazing outcome,” said certified financial planner Dan Galli, owner of Daniel J. Galli & Associates in Norwell, Massachusetts.    

“Sometimes, people don’t believe it’s real,” he said, because you can automatically contribute and then convert the funds to “turn it into tax-free income.”

However, many plans still don’t offer the feature. In 2023, only 22% of employer plans offered after-tax 401(k) contributions, according to the latest data from Vanguard’s How America Saves report. It’s most common in larger plans.

Even when it’s available, employee participation remains low. Only 9% of investors with access leveraged the feature in 2023, the same Vanguard report found. That’s down slightly from 10% in 2022.