The objective of this study was to examine the prevalence of going out to work during the COVID-19 epidemic, and the factors associated with this, among adults aged 50 years and over who were in paid employment before its onset. We used data from the second wave of the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI-Brazil), conducted through face-to-face interviews between August 2019 and March 2020 (before the onset of the epidemic), in a representative national sample of adults aged 50 and over, and data obtained through telephone interviews carried out among the same participants (ELSI-COVID-19 initiative), conducted between May 26 and June 8, 2020 (during the epidemic). The analyses were based on odds ratios (OR) estimated by logistic regression. The participants' mean age was 59.9 years (SD = 6.5). The prevalence of going out to work in the previous seven days was 38.4% (95%CI: 31.3-46.1), 50.2% among men and 25.1% among women (formal work, self-employment, and informal work). The results showed that among men, the likelihood of going out to work was lower among those aged 60 to 69 years compared to those aged 50 to 59 years (OR = 0.27; 95%CI: 0.15-0.48). Among women, the likelihood was lower among those who were self-employed (OR = 0.28; 95%CI: 0.12-0.64) or in informal employment before the epidemic (OR = 0.25; 95%CI: 0.09-0.69), compared to those in formal employment. One of the hypotheses to explain this association is that women in informal employment were more likely to be dismissed, and that self-employed women have stopped working during the epidemic.