Is 75 becoming the new 65? 55?

When I recently asked a director of Occidental Petroleum about the hubbub over CEO Ray Irani working past the company's mandatory retirement age of 75, he said that Irani "might chronologically be 75, but in terms of performance he's at the top of his game." Don't know about that, but there's no argument that the number of people working well into their 70's has been skyrocketing. The folks at AARP found that 1.3 million people were working, or at least looking for work, in 2009, compared with just under half a million 20 years earlier. And of workers between 75 and 84, more than 42 percent hold full-time jobs (I'm getting tired just thinking of those hearty souls). Author Paula Span takes a look:

I know some readers who will lament this as evidence of a fraying safety net that robs elders of the golden leisure years they were promised. It's true, [says John Rother, AARP executive vice president for policy]... that sheer financial need is a potent motive. "People who have lost money in their 401(k)'s or equity in their homes have to work," he said. But because the growth in the 75-plus work force predates the financial meltdown and continued through the boom years, staving off poverty clearly isn't the only motive. "People have worked all their lives, find meaning in it, are still quite skilled and want to continue," Mr. Rother said.