1790–1879 ∼ Recognizing the Need for Retirement
State legislatures introduced policies of mandatory retirement for some public officials between 1790 and 1820 / Business begins to regard unemployment as a distinctly different problem from poverty (mid 1880s) / 70 percent of American males over the age of sixty-five still work (1840) / Some, but not all, states require judges to retire due to advancing age (1860) / Congress establishes a system to provide pensions for disabled soldiers (1862) / American Express establishes the first railroad pension plan (1875) / Massachusetts is the first state to collect unemployment statistics (1878)
MILESTONES: Decline of the apprenticeship system (1820–1860) • Factories employ entire families of immigrants (1820s–1830s) • Old Immigration from England, Ireland, Scandinavia and Germany (1830–1870) Census shows great increase in the types of occupations (1850) • One-fifth of the American population is killed in the Civil War (1861–1865) • First labor union formed in the U.S. (1866)
1880–1899 ∼ Early Pension Plans
B&O Railroad pension plan is the first to allow employees to retire voluntarily at the age of 65 (1880) / Nearly half of all retired men live with their children or a relative (1880) / Business begins looking for ways to dismiss older, inefficient employees (1880s) / Civil Service Act makes removal of government employees who are no longer productive extremely difficult (1883) / Term “unemployment” appears to have been used for the first time (1887) / Most businesses do not have formal policies requiring retirement at a specific age (late 1800s) / Vast majority of railroads do not offer pensions to their elderly workers (1889) / Federal government begins to provide a pension for veterans of the Union Army (1890) / Treasury Department plan reduces salaries for employees aged 70 or above while requiring less output from them (1897)
MILESTONES: Interracial alliances of workers and farmers forge national organization, the Knights of Labor (1880s–1890s) • State courts rule that labor reform laws violate the rights of employers to enjoy the freedom to operate their businesses (1881–1900) • First professional football game takes place in Latrobe, Pennsylvania (August 31, 1885) • Knights of Labor call a strike against the railroads (1886) • Eight-hour work day inaugurated in Chicago (1886) • Capture of Geronimo ends formal warfare between whites and Native Americans (1886) • St.
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