According to a blog by Latifa Lyles, acting director of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Women’s Bureau, workers over 55 who want to, or have to, delay retirement are “a new demographic wave in the workforce.

Lyles says that while older workers are less likely to become unemployed, but if they do, “they are likely to remain out of work longer and tend to experience sharper declines in wages than younger workers,” says Lyles. However, if they do or if they retire, “for older women workers, this can be an even more difficult situation.

“For example, older women are more likely to have financial hardship than older men, due in part to lower lifetime earnings. In 2012, the median weekly earnings of all full-time women workers were 81 percent of men’s. Because of this wage gap, women stand to lose upwards of $854,000 in wages over the course of their career. Furthermore, women in the U.S. tend to live, on average, about 5 years longer than men. So this means that they may have to survive longer on less money, contributing to the staggering 17.7 percent poverty rate among women aged 65 and older."

The blog states that a recent roundtable hosted by the DOL Women’s Bureau “brought attention to the need for employers “to be educated more about the value of older workers, who can offer skills, experience, and stability that many younger and less seasoned workers cannot. … It is up to [employers] to encourage them to continue in the workplace by providing them with the desired work environment, hours of work, and benefits that they need to succeed.”