How do millennials feel about raising the retirement age?

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) -- It's an inevitable part of life that more and more workers are hoping to be prepared for.

"The idea of being prepared for retirement is certainly scary," Charlotte millennial worker Laura Casey said.

Ron DeSantis drops out of 2024 presidential race, endorses Donald Trump

While younger generations stress over when and how they will retire, the safety net provided to generations before them is slowly dwindling. And it's a central topic for those running for the White House.

"Social Security is going to go bankrupt in 10 years. Medicare is going to go bankrupt in eight," Republican presidential candidate and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. "So, the way we deal with it is we don't touch anyone's retirement or anyone who has been promised in, but we go to people like my kids in their 20s. ... We have to figure out what it is, but what we do know is that 65 is way too low."

According to a report by the Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare, current funds will only be able to pay 100 percent of scheduled benefits for another nine years. After that, payments would be lowered.

"This whole nature of 50 years and the gold watch and the pension is not really a thing anymore for most people," Bankrate industry analyst Ted Rossman said.

Rossman said at some point, it is likely the retirement age will be pushed back in a way that is similar to what happened in the 1980s. The retirement age went from 65 to 67 but did not take full effect for decades.

Biden administration marks Roe v. Wade anniversary

"At some point, social security is going to run out of money, if not entirely at least not be able to pay full benefits. And that's also a consequence of some societal change, just in terms of birth rates have gone down. At some point there is not going to be enough workers to support the older population," Rossman said.

While the most likely option, millennial workers, like Casey, say keeping Americans in the workforce longer will only hurt those trying to save for retirement.

"When people are working longer, we also get stuck in lower positions as well because people aren't moving through the workforce," she said. "It's happening across many levels and many industries, so it becomes a self-perpetuating cycle."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average age for Americans in 2021 was 76.4 years old, down 0.3 from that in 2000.