A recent Dilbert comic strip crystallizes a workforce challenge that could soon result in more business regulation.

Thanks to the bruising blows their retirement accounts have taken, baby boomers now say they intend to remain in the workforce longer than they expected to just a few years ago. The Senate Special Committee on Aging, headed by Milwaukee Bucks owner/Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI), met today to discuss the downturn’s effect on retirement security.

The centerpiece of today’s meeting is a new 50-page report from the Government Accountability Office whose title conveys its content: “Enhanced Communication Among Federal Agencies Could Improve Strategies for Hiring and Retaining Experienced Workers.”

Several bills, which could impose new regulations on companies related to how they hire and manage older workers, will be introduced this week.

Two of these new bills include:

• The Older Worker Opportunity Act of 2009, sponsored by Senators Kohl and Dick Durbin (D-IL), which would seek to limit the barriers (such as the loss of health coverage) that prevent many older workers from shifting to part-time schedules; and

• A bill to make it easier to rehire federal annuitants, sponsored by Senators Kohl and Susan Collins (R-ME), which would enable the federal government to rehire federal retirees part-time, without forcing the employee to reduce their salary by their pension amount, as under current law. While the individuals would receive both salary and annuity payments, they would not be considered employees for the purposes of retirement and would receive no additional retirement benefits based on their service.

The second bill would seem to make sense in the private sector as well. Consider the utility sector, where older, seasoned workers (e.g., nuclear engineers) frequently leave utility companies when they reach retirement age because rules prevent them from working and collecting their pension simultaneously. Instead, they join consulting firms (where they can still collect their pension and a salary), and their former companies wind up paying much more for their expertise in the form of consulting fees.

Of course, common sense and business regulation don’t always go hand in hand. If they did, Asok and Wally would have less to gripe about. ###