Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T18:07:30.776Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

No way out but working? Income dynamics of young retirees in Korea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2010

YUNJEONG YANG
YUNJEONG YANG*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
*
Address for correspondence: Yunjeong Yang, Postdoctoral researcher, Graduate School & Social Welfare, Ewha Womans University, 11-1 Daehyon-dong, Seodaemun-go, Seoul 120-750, Korea. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Older people in Korea have a higher risk of poverty than younger adults, but the dynamics of income changes around the time of retirement have received little attention. This paper attempts to fill this gap by examining changes in the level and sources of income around the time of retirement, with retirement being defined as separation from one's main lifetime employment. It uses longitudinal data from the Korean Labour and Income Panel Study's Waves 1–9, and follows 580 younger retirees aged at least 50 years who retired during 1998–2005. The paper demonstrates that the prevalence of low income across the retirement transition was related to gender, previous career status and current working status. In particular, there was a noticeable increase in the prevalence of low income among permanent retirees compared to those who continued working in retirement. It also examines different factors associated with the individuals' economic wellbeing after retirement, and finds that working status in retirement is indeed the factor that most influences the probability of low-income entry among male retirees, while for women, the nature of co-residence with working household member(s) and household assets most mattered. From this, the paper concludes that being in paid work after retirement remains an important substitute for the immature old-age safety-net in Korea.

Keywords

retirementincomepanel dataolder peopleKorea
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , February 2011 , pp. 265 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arthur, S. 2003. Money, Choice and Control: The Financial Circumstances of Early Retirement. Policy Press, Bristol, UK.Google Scholar
Bardasi, E. and Jenkins, S. P. 2002. Income in Later Life: Work History Matters. Policy Press, Bristol, UK.Google Scholar
Bardasi, E., Jenkins, S. P. and Rigg, J. A. 2002. Retirement and the income of older people: a British perspective. Ageing & Society, 22, 2, 131–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casey, B. and Yamada, A. 2002. Getting Older, Getting Poorer? A Study of the Earnings, Pensions, Assets and Living Arrangements of Older People in Nine Countries. Labour Market and Social Policy Occasional Paper 60, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris.Google Scholar
Casey, B. and Yamada, A. 2004. The public–private mix of retirement income in nine OECD countries: some evidence from micro data and an exploration of its implications. In Rein, M. and Schmèahl, W. (eds), Rethinking the Welfare State: The Political Economy of Pension Reform. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, 395–411.Google Scholar
Chae, E. 1992. Programmes and Policies for the Aged in the Republic of Korea. UN Round Table on the Ageing of Asian Populations, Bangkok.Google Scholar
Chang, J. and Lee, H. 2008. Income level and composition of elderly households. In Chang, J. (ed.), An International Comparative Study of Labour Market for Middle- and Old-Aged Persons. Korea Labor Institute, Seoul, 12–42. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Choi, H. 2007. Income sources of elderly households in Korea. Labor Reviews, 2007, April, 69–79. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Choi, H. and Ryu, Y. 2003. A study of the levels, trends and composition of the old-age poverty in Korea. Journal of the Korean Gerontological Society, 23, 3, 145–60. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Disney, R., Grundy, E. M. D. and Johnson, P. 1997. The Dynamics of Retirement: Analyses of the Retirement Surveys. Stationery Office, London.Google Scholar
Förster, M. and d'Ercole, M. M. 2005. Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries in the Second Half of the 1990s. Social, Employment and Migration Working Paper, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris.Google Scholar
Guillemard, A. M. and van Gunsteren, H. 1991. Pathways and their prospects: a comparative interpretation of the meaning of early exit. In Kohli, M., Rein, M., Guillemard, A. M. and van Gunsteren, H. (eds), Time for Retirement: Comparative Studies of Early Exit from the Labour Force. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 362–88.Google Scholar
Jeong, E. and Kim, J. 2007. Factor analysis of income inequality by household characteristics. The 8th KLIPS Annual Symposium, Korea Labor Institute, Seoul. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Jonsson, I. 1999. Women, work and welfare. In Littlewood, P., Glorieux, I., Herkommer, S. and Jonsson, I. (eds), Social Exclusion in Europe: Problems and Paradigms. Ashgate, Aldershot, UK, 113–34.Google Scholar
Jung, E. and Cheon, B. 2001. The structure of wage differentiation in the 1990s in Korea: are internal labor markets being weakened? Economy and Society, 52, 156–83. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Kim, I., Kim, D., Mo, S., Park, K., Won, Y., Lee, Y. and Jo, S. 1999. Korean Elderly Life: Current State and Prospects. Future Human Resources Research Centre, Seoul. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Kim, S. 2008. Regional bipolarisation and income from assets. The 9th KLIPS Annual Symposium, Korea Labor Institute, Seoul. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Kim, S. and Cho, Y. 2006. The old age income packages and their anti-poverty effectiveness in Korea. Journal of Social Welfare, 29, Winter, 5–37. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Kim, Y. 1998. The comparative analysis of income, expenditure and assets between retired elderly households and employed elderly households. Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association, 36, 7, 57–67. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Kohli, M. 1992. Labor market perspectives and activity patterns of the elderly in an ageing society. In van den Heuvel, W. J. A., Illsley, R., Jamieson, A. and Knipscheer, C. P. M. (eds), Opportunities and Challenges in an Ageing Society. Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam, 90–105.Google Scholar
Kohli, M. and Rein, M. 1991. The changing balance of work and retirement. In Kohli, M., Rein, M., Guillemard, A. M. and van Gunsteren, H. (eds), Time for Retirement: Comparative Studies of Early Exit from the Labor Force. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1–35.Google Scholar
Korea National Statistical Office 2006. 2006 Social Indicators in Korea. Korea National Statistical Office, Daejeon, Korea. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Kweon, M. 1996. Determinants of retirement and post-retirement work behaviour of older Koreans. Journal of Social Welfare, 8, 1, 41–67. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Lister, R. 2002. The dilemmas of pendulum politics: balancing paid work, care and citizenship. Economy and Society, 31, 4, 520–32.Google Scholar
Nam, J., Seong, J., Lee, S., Choi, H. and Shin, S. 2007. Korean Household and Individual Economic Activities – 2005 KLIPS Annual Report. Korea Labor Institute, Seoul. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Organisation for Economic Development (OECD) 2000. Reforms for an Ageing Society. OECD, Paris.Google Scholar
Organisation for Economic Development (OECD) 2004. Ageing and Employment Policies: Korea. OECD, Paris.Google Scholar
Oxley, H., Burniaux, J. M., Dang, T. T. and d'Ercole, M. M. 1999. Income Distribution and Poverty in 13 OECD Countries. Economic Studies 29, Organisation for Economic Development, Paris, 55–94.Google Scholar
Park, K. 2000. Age-discriminating structure of the labour market and work life of the elderly. Korean Labor Economic Association Dissertation, 23, 3, 241–63. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Park, K. 2001. The effect of work status during middle life on the retirement process later in life course. Korean Labor Economic Association Dissertation, 24, 3, 177–205. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Park, K. 2003 a. Separation process of older people aged 55 or more from the labour market: retirement or non-employment. The 4th KLIPS Symposium. Korea Labor Institute, Seoul. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Park, K. 2003 b. Ageing Society: An Already Begun Future. Euiam Publisher, Seoul. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Phang, H., Shin, D., Kim, D. and Shin, H. 2004. Population Ageing and the Labour Market. Korea Labor Institute, Seoul. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Pierson, P. 2001. The New Politics of the Welfare State. Oxford University Press, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinn, J. F. and Burkhauser, R. V. 1990. Work and retirement. In Binstock, R. H. and George, L. K. (eds), Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences. Third edition, Academic, London, 308–27.Google Scholar
Rein, M. and Stapf-Finé, H. 2004. Income packaging and economic wellbeing in the last stage of the working career. In Rein, M. and Schmèahl, W. (eds), Rethinking the Welfare State: The Political Economy of Pension Reform. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, 412–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seok, J. 2000. Role sharing of the public and private sectors as income sources for the elderly. Journal of Korean Social Security Association, 16, 1, 51–78. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Seok, J. and Lim, J. 2007. Income gap and differences of income sources between older women and men. Journal of the Korean Gerontological Society, 27, 1, 1–22. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Smeaton, D. and McKay, S. 2003. Working After State Pension Age: Quantitative Analysis. Corporate Documentation Services, Leeds, UK.Google Scholar
Smeeding, T. M. 1990. Economic status of the elderly. In Binstock, R. H. and George, L. K. (eds), Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences. Academic, San Diego, California, 362–82.Google Scholar
Smeeding, T. M., Rainwater, L. and Burtless, G. T. 2001. US poverty in a cross-national context. In Danziger, S. and Haveman, R. H. (eds), Understanding Poverty. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 162–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitehouse, E. 2000. How Poor Are the Old? A Survey of Evidence from 44 Countries. Social Protection Discussion Paper 17, World Bank, Washington DC.Google Scholar
Williamson, J. and Smeeding, T. 2004. Sliding into Poverty? Cross-national Patterns of Income Source Change and Income Decay in Old Age. Working Paper 388, Luxembourg Income Study, Luxembourg.CrossRefGoogle Scholar