Higher Benefit Payouts

• Your Social Security retirement payment is based on the number of years you work. Applying for Social Security early retirement results in an annual lower payment because there are fewer work years on which to calculate your benefit. Raising the Social Security early retirement age will cause the average annual payout from Social Security to increase as Americans will work more years and add more money into their Social Security fund. However, once they retire, the payouts will be higher, so it could be a wash.
  
  

Shorter Retirements

• Increasing the Social Security early retirement age will force workers to delay their retirement. This could cause a decrease in the average length of retirement as workers will no longer have the option to retire early. Although rising life expectancy will make up for some of the delay, it may not have an equal impact on all demographics. African Americans, men and low income workers are projected to have lower life expectancies than other demographics by the Economic Policy Institute. This predicts that these workers will have the most severe drop in average retirement years.
  
  

Older Workforce

• Raising the early retirement age of Social Security will force some workers to delay their retirement. This will be a problem for labor intensive fields like construction as an older workforce will have increased risk of injury. White collar fields may see a benefit from an older workforce as more experienced employees will stay on for longer careers, but this may create a problem for those just entering the workforce. As older workers delay their retirements, companies may have fewer openings for new workers, and it is current workers who provide benefits for current retirees because Social Security is essentially a pay-as-you-go system.
  
  

Higher GDP

• A prediction from the American Enterprise Institute is that raising Social Security's early retirement age would create a boost to America's GDP. The AEI claims that if more workers delay their retirement, the total workforce will increase. This would create a high total output for the country. Since workers make more from annual wages than from Social Security benefits, they are predicted to have more disposable income to spend. As a result, this delay of retirement by older workers is predicted by the AEI to increase total GDP.