scholarly journals ‘Fuller’ or ‘extended’ working lives? Critical perspectives on changing transitions from work to retirement

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 629-650 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRIS PHILLIPSON
Keyword(s):  
Older Workers ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Essential Requirement ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
Part Time ◽  
New Forms Of Work

ABSTRACTResearch on older workers and retirement has yet to adjust fully to an environment influenced by a combination of demographic change, technological developments and economic recession. A key dimension to the changing relationship between ageing and work is the tension between policies to extend working life and the increasingly fragmented nature of late working life, with the emergence of varied transitions, including: bridge employment, second/third careers, part-time working, early retirement and other variations. These developments indicate both the challenge of conceptualising new forms of work-ending, and – in policy terms – the extent to which these can successfully accommodate longer working lives. The paper provides a critical perspective to the policy of extending working life and the narrative which underpins this approach. The paper argues that retirement has become a ‘contested’ institution in the 21st century, fragmented across different pathways and transitions affecting people in their fifties and sixties. The paper argues the case for improving work quality and security as a precondition for supporting policies for encouraging working in later life. An essential requirement for this will include linking debates on extending working life with technological developments and changes affecting the workplace, creating differentiated paths to retirement and labour force exit, enhancing the provision of training and continuing education, and re-thinking the idea of the ‘older worker’.

Flexible Employment in Later Life: Public Policy Panaceas in the Search for Mechanisms to Extend Working Lives

2004 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerry Platman
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Flexible Employment ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Multi Stakeholder ◽  
The Uk

Flexible employment has been suggested as an important policy solution to ‘the problem’ of inactive older workers. Temporary contracts, part-time jobs, self-employment and freelance consulting have been seen as viable options for people needing to make gradual transitions into retirement and for governments wishing to encourage an extension to working lives. Using the case of the UK, the paper examines the multi-stakeholder appeal of flexible transitions into retirement. However, the term has been poorly defined and conceptualised. Drawing on her own research, the author challenges the notion of flexible extensions to working lives for the oldest members of the labour force.

“Fuller” or “extended” working lives: a critical commentary

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 237-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Phillipson
Keyword(s):  
Older Workers ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Older Worker ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Critical Commentary ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to, first, provide some background to the treatment of older workers; second, highlight the distinction between a “fuller” and an “extended” working life; third, note the importance of separating out different groups within the category “older worker”; finally, identify areas for action to suppose those now facing working into their 60s and beyond. Design/methodology/approach – Commentary paper analysing development of policies towards older workers. Findings – This paper identifies problems implementing policy of extending working and provides various areas of action to support older workers. Research limitations/implications – This paper suggests extending work unlikely to be achieved without ensuring greater security for older workers. Practical implications – Importance of developing more support for older workers. Social implications – Challenge of resolving insecurity in the labour force as an impediment to extended working. Originality/value – This paper outlines a critical assessment of current government policy towards older workers.

scholarly journals Exclusion and Inequality in Late Working Life–On the Gendered Risks for Old-Age Exclusion in Sweden and Poland

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 65-65
Author(s):  
Andreas Motel-Klingebiel ◽  
Jolanta Perek-Białas ◽  
Indre Genelyte ◽  
Susanne Kelfve
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Institutional Conditions ◽  
Economic Exclusion ◽  
The Uk

Abstract The labour market activity of older workers and their ability and disposition to maintain it depend on institutional conditions, age norms, labour demand and shifting overall economic conditions. The paper discusses exclusion and inequality in later working life from a European comparative perspective and emphasises shifts in late work and retirement patterns as well as later-life outcomes in Sweden and Poland. An emphasis is on changing institutional conditions on the national and branch level. Gendered risks for economic exclusion and later life precarity are stressed. Analyses for the two countries are contrasted with Germany and the UK. The analyses are part of the research program ‘Exclusion and Inequality in Late Working Life: Evidence for Policy Innovation Towards Inclusive Extended Work and Sustainable Working Conditions in Sweden and Europe – EIWO’ (2019-24). Analyses use data from SHARE and EU-SILC and address older workers of age 60 and older in Sweden, Poland, German and the UK. They find increasingly heterogeneous preretirement and transition patterns, new gender gaps and increasing risks of economic exclusion in retirement. Situations differ between countries with the prolongation of late working life in Sweden having a mostly positive effect on gender inequalities with low education and specific migrant groups as an exception. Poland is specific case due to unequally low retirement age for woman (60) and for men (65) with consequently large structural gender differences and increases in the process of increasing labour force participation of older workers and increasingly gendered risks for old-age economic exclusion.

The empirical landscape of extended working lives

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debra Street
Keyword(s):  
Older Workers ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Demographic Ageing ◽  
Unpaid Care ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Dependency Ratios ◽  
Part Time ◽  
And Gender

Population-level factors associated with demographic ageing and policies intended to encourage older workers to extend working lives in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, UK and US are documented in this chapter. Data are from international sources (mainly the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the CIA Factbook, to ensure comparability) derived from government agencies in the seven countries covered in this volume. Presenting population-level data for each country gives readers a starting point for considering how each nation compares to the others analysed in the later country chapters. Data related to demographic ageing, including patterns in longevity, proportion of national populations aged 65+, and country-specific dependency ratios are presented first. These set the stage for understanding the potential gendered implications of demands for older workers to postpone retirement and extend their working lives. Additional comparative data provided in this chapter include nation-specific patterns of women's and men's labour force participation, gender pay and gender pension gaps, typical retirement ages, and a summary of older worker's recent experiences in the labour market. Patterns of unpaid care work, time use, and full-time versus part-time employment are also compared to provide a foundation against which readers can assess the prospects for older workers in general, and the particular disadvantages faced by older women in particular, when governments demand that individuals postpone retirement and work longer.

scholarly journals Is working in later life good for your health? A systematic review of health outcomes resulting from extended working lives

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Baxter ◽  
Lindsay Blank ◽  
Anna Cantrell ◽  
Elizabeth Goyder
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Good For

Abstract Background Work, rather than unemployment, is recognised as being good for health, but there may be an age when the benefits are outweighed by adverse impacts. As countries around the world increase their typical retirement age, the potential effect on population health and health inequalities requires scrutiny. Methods We carried out a systematic review of literature published since 2011 from developed countries on the health effects of employment in those over 64 years of age. We completed a narrative synthesis and used harvest plots to map the direction and volume of evidence for the outcomes reported. We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA) checklist in our methods and reporting. Results We identified seventeen relevant studies, which were of cohort or cross-sectional design. The results indicate evidence of beneficial or neutral effects from extended working on overall health status and physical health for many employees, and mixed effects on mental health. The benefits reported however, are most likely to be for males, those working part-time or reducing to part-time, and employees in jobs which are not low quality or low reward. Conclusions Extending working life (particularly part time) may have benefits or a neutral effect for some, but adverse effects for others in high demand or low reward jobs. There is the potential for widening health inequalities between those who can choose to reduce their working hours, and those who need to continue working full time for financial reasons. There is a lack of evidence for effects on quality of life, and a dearth of interventions enabling older workers to extend their healthy working life.

scholarly journals Housing wealth, mortgages and Australians’ labour force participation in later life

Urban Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004209802110265
Author(s):  
Rachel Ong ◽  
Gavin A Wood ◽  
Melek Cigdem
Keyword(s):  
Household Income ◽  
House Prices ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Housing Markets ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Urban Housing ◽  
Housing Wealth ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Imputed Rent

In the life cycle model of consumption and saving, homeownership is an important vehicle for horizontal redistribution. Households accumulate wealth in owner-occupied housing during working lives before benefiting from imputed rent streams in retirement. But in some countries housing wealth’s welfare role has broadened as owners increasingly use flexible mortgages to smooth consumption during working lives. One consequence is higher outstanding mortgages later in life, a burden exacerbated by high real house prices that compel home buyers to demand mortgages that are a growing multiple of their incomes. We investigate whether these developments are prompting longer working lives, an idea that is especially relevant in countries offering relatively low government pensions. Australia is one such country. We use the 2001–2017 panels of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey to estimate hazard models of exits from the Australian labour force as workers approach pensionable age. We find that those with high outstanding mortgage debts are more likely to postpone retirement, as are those with relatively low amounts of private pension wealth. These results are stronger in urban housing markets, and especially among males.

Gendered and extended work: research and policy needs for work in later life

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Vickerstaff ◽  
Debra Street ◽  
Áine Ní Léime ◽  
Clary Krekula
Keyword(s):  
Working Life ◽  
Later Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Current Policy ◽  
Individual Country ◽  
Life Chances ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Extended Work

The conclusion briefly summarises the contributions of each of the individual country chapters; to highlight major cross-national similarities and differences; to emphasise topics where more research is needed to better understand the myriad implications of extended working lives, and to consider some policy directions that could improve prospects for extended working life by countering the increasing polarisation of later life opportunities which current policy trajectories will create. While not denying the materially better conditions in Sweden or the United States than, say, Portugal or Ireland, there is not as much variation across the countries covered as might otherwise have been expected when extended working life is considered through a gendered lens. If older women's disadvantage is to be minimised or addressed, it is certain that the private sector alone cannot accomplish that. Only governments can redistribute resources and life chances in ways that would give future women (and vulnerable men) a fighting chance at good employment in later life and adequate income in old age.

Theoretical and conceptual issues in the extending working lives agenda

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clary Krekula ◽  
Sarah Vickerstaff
Keyword(s):  
Older Workers ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Job Opportunities ◽  
The One ◽  
New Research ◽  
Individual Choices

The policy debate on older people's extended participation in working life is not based on a social movement, such as the one putting forward demands on job opportunities for women, and has, by means of categorical stereotypes, mostly characterised older people as the problem. This narrative of individual choices and decisions presents older workers as de-gendered, de-classed individuals, shorn of their individual biographies and social contexts. It also treats the issue of extending working life as a phenomenon disconnected from surrounding society and trends. This line of reasoning points to the need for more sophisticated theoretical foundations. This chapter therefore provides a more encompassing framework for the discussion of extending working lives and outlines a new research agenda, including a power perspective with potential to shed light on age-based inequality, an intersectional perspective and a masculinity perspective which challenges the homogenous descriptions of older workers, a feminist understanding of work and a life course perspective which provides a framework which links the previous three.

scholarly journals Employees’ Longer Working Lives in Europe: Drivers and Barriers in Companies

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 1658
Author(s):  
Andrea Principi ◽  
Jürgen Bauknecht ◽  
Mirko Di Rosa ◽  
Marco Socci
Keyword(s):  
Working Conditions ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Early Retirement ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Retirement Age ◽  
European Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Market Factors ◽  
Legal Retirement Age

This paper identifies, within companies’ sectors of activity, predictors of Human Resource (HR) policies to extend working life (EWL) in light of increasing policy efforts at the European level to extend working life. Three types of EWL practices are investigated: the prevention of early retirement (i.e., encouraging employees to continue working until the legal retirement age); delay of retirement (i.e., encouraging employees to continue working beyond the legal retirement age); and, recruitment of employees who are already retired (i.e., unretirement). A sample of 4624 European organizations that was stratified by size and sector is analyzed in six countries. The main drivers for companies’ EWL practices are the implementation of measures for older workers to improve their performance, their working conditions, and to reduce costs. In industry, the qualities and skills of older workers could be more valued than in other sectors, while the adoption of EWL practices might be less affected by external economic and labor market factors in the public sector. Dutch and Italian employers may be less prone than others to extend working lives. These results underline the importance of raising employers’ awareness and increase their actions to extend employees’ working lives by adopting age management initiatives, especially in SMEs, and in the services and public sectors.

scholarly journals Pathways to early retirement: structure and agency in decision-making among British civil servants

2003 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 761-778 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAUL HIGGS ◽  
GILL MEIN ◽  
JANE FERRIE ◽  
MARTIN HYDE ◽  
JAMES NAZROO
Keyword(s):  
Older Workers ◽  
Early Retirement ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
The United Kingdom

The context of this paper is the changing nature of later life in the United Kingdom. It examines some of the broader issues of early retirement. While there has been considerable debate about the restructuring of employment during the latter part of the 20th century which led to a shake-out of older workers from the labour force, less attention has been given to those who take voluntary early retirement. Given the importance of early retirement to the economy and to social policy, it is important to find out how individuals make retirement decisions. The paper examines the results of a semi-structured interview study of the decisions made by a purposively drawn sample of British civil servants who are participants in the Whitehall II study. The sample included participants who chose early retirement and those who did not. From the interview data, ideal types of possible routes into retirement have been constructed. Illustrating these ideal types, individual life histories are drawn upon to show how responses to the issues surrounding retirement feature in people's lives. It is argued that decisions about early retirement are not made in a vacuum, neither are they free from pressures or inducements. Some are to do with organisational restructuring, some are about financial offers, and some are influenced by the opportunities for leisure and self-fulfilment that early retirement offers. The paper concludes by arguing that early retirement needs to be studied as a process involving the interplay between structure and agency.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document