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In line or at odds with active ageing policies? Exploring patterns of retirement preferences in Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2014

DIRK HOFÄCKER
DIRK HOFÄCKER*
Affiliation:
Department of Educational Sciences, Institute for Social Work and Social Policy, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.
*
Address for correspondence: Dirk Hofäcker, Faculty of Educational Sciences, Institute for Social Work and Politics, University of Duisburg-Essen, WST-C.14.11, Berliner Platz 6–8, 45127 Essen, Germany. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Faced with demographic ageing, European policy makers since the mid-1990s have taken a turn from fostering early retirement to promoting longer working life by reducing early exit incentives and facilitating work continuation. However, it remains open whether these reforms are yet reflected in the retirement plans and preferences of future pensioners’ cohorts. Using most recent data on desired retirement ages from the fifth wave of the European Social Survey (2010/11 wave), this paper empirically investigates how far current policy reforms are in line with the retirement age preferences of older workers aged 45 and over. Results show that older workers approaching retirement ages still intend to retire before the politically envisioned age of 65, and in many cases also before nationally defined standard retirement ages. Despite visible progress in implementing active ageing measures, the challenge of motivating older workers to continue working until or even beyond retirement ages thus remains. At the same time, there are regime-specific problem groups that face difficulties in adjusting to the active ageing paradigm of longer working life. Especially in countries with little employment support, those with unstable work careers, employment interruptions and few financial resources are at a high risk of being crowded out from late career employment and thus from the possibility of ensuring a decent standard of living in old age.

Keywords

RetirementpreferencesEuropeInstitutionsPush factorspull factorsstay factors
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 35 , Issue 7 , August 2015 , pp. 1529 - 1556
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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