““Age-friendliness is hard to define and measure — after all, workers of all ages would like to set their own schedule and avoid backbreaking physical activity. So how did economists Daron Acemoglu and Nicolaj Mühlbach of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Andrew Scott of London Business School pull it off? (Mühlbach, who worked at MIT at the time of this research, now works as an analytics associate at McKinsey and Co.)
They began with the results of an earlier, separate survey of about 1,800 American workers that, among many other factoids, pinpointed which job qualities older workers valued higher than their younger peers. In particular, workers age 62 and older were significantly more willing to accept a smaller paycheck if a job involved moderate physical activity, more time sitting and the autonomy to choose how to do their job.”