Worklife Expectancy

By Christopher Skerritt, M.Ed., MBA, Chief of Economic Services · Published

Worklife expectancy is the number of additional years a person of a given age, sex, education, and labor force status is expected to be employed or actively seeking work over the rest of a lifetime. It sets the horizon for a lost earnings projection and is drawn from published tables built on labor force transition data rather than from an assumed retirement age.

When it is used

Worklife expectancy bounds every projection of future earnings: lost earnings and earning capacity in injury matters, the decedent's earnings in wrongful death claims, and the front-pay or lost-career horizon in employment matters. It also informs the period over which fringe benefits accrue and the age at which retirement income would have begun.

Step-by-step

  1. Record the person's age at the valuation date, sex, highest level of education completed, and labor force status immediately before the event
  2. Select the published worklife table that matches those characteristics and read the expected additional years of labor force activity
  3. Decide whether to apply the expectancy as a single figure or to model the year-by-year probabilities of being active, which spreads expected earnings over the full horizon rather than truncating at a fixed age
  4. Consider case-specific evidence of a different horizon, such as a documented retirement plan, a mandatory retirement age in the occupation, or a medical opinion on reduced life expectancy, and state how it was used
  5. Apply the same horizon to earnings, benefits, and any offsetting post-event earnings so the two sides of the comparison are measured over the same period

Data sources

Limitations

Worklife tables describe population averages. They do not know that a particular person intended to work to seventy, that a particular occupation is physically demanding, or that a particular employer offers early retirement. Those facts belong in the record, and the report should say whether and how they moved the horizon away from the table. Tables are also updated periodically, so a projection should identify the edition used.

Admissibility

Published worklife tables have been used in damages testimony for decades and are the standard reference in the forensic economics literature; courts rarely exclude an earnings projection for relying on them. Disputes concern the choice between a fixed horizon and a probability-weighted one, whether the pre-event labor force status was characterized correctly, and whether an economist departed from the table without a documented basis. The lost earnings guide describes how the horizon fits into the full calculation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is worklife expectancy the same as retirement age?

No. Retirement age is a single assumed stopping point. Worklife expectancy is an expected number of years of labor force activity that already reflects the probability of periods out of the labor force, whether from unemployment, illness, caregiving, or early retirement, and the probability of working past a conventional retirement age.

Does an injury change worklife expectancy?

The published tables describe the pre-event population. Where the record supports a reduced post-event worklife, for example a medical opinion that the person will leave the labor force earlier than expected, the economist models that reduction explicitly and explains its basis rather than adjusting the table silently.

What does the economist do when the person was not working at the time of the event?

Tables are stratified by labor force status, so an inactive person has a lower expected worklife than an active one of the same age and education. The report states which status was used and why, and where the person was between jobs or on leave, the record on the intent to return to work is discussed.

Services that use this method

References

Request a consultation on Worklife Expectancy or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.