Retirement:

Stressful life events have been proposed as a possible cause of elder abuse. This study investigates the influence of retirement status on marital conflict and physical violence using a nationally representative sample of 1238 respondents aged 55 years and older. No significant differences were found between retired men and women compared to their nonretired counterparts on measures of depression, stress, marital conflict, and violence. Future research should examine other life events, such as serious illness of one partner or changes in living situation, that might have a more significant impact on marital discord in later life.     

Retirement and risk: the individualisation of retirement experiences?

A climate of uncertainty and risk exists in the field of retirement and pensions. Many employers have modified their pension schemes shifting the financial risk onto employees. Many individuals with private pensions have watched the value of their savings diminish. Added to this, the trend toward early retirement before state pension age has destabilised the traditional life course notion of a fixed retirement age, (especially for men). As a result, the concept of retirement itself has become more unpredictable and difficult to define. In this article we examine the extent of the individualisation of retirement experiences by reference to a study of retirement transitions in two organisations. The research investigated the influences on people's retirement decisions and the extent to which they experienced choice and control over how and when they retired. It is possible to identify a pattern of individualisation in contrast to its opposite of a mass transition into retirement, collectively understood and embedded in formal, institutionalised arrangements. However, underlying this fragmentation of experience there are clear structural patterns. The form that structured individualisation took here, was less to increase the majority of people's range of alternatives and choices over when and how to retire and more to enlarge the range of risks they had to cope with.     

EBRI 2008 recent retirees survey: report of findings

Understanding how to achieve longer work lives: The 2008 Recent Retirees Survey was undertaken to better understand the tools and practices that might encourage workers to postpone their retirement and remain longer with their company. Why do people retire when they do? Respondents typically retired from employers for one of four reasons: retirement becomes affordable, lack of job satisfaction, a desire for more personal or family time, and/or their own health status. Narrow window for asking people to work longer: One of the major findings from the survey is that employers have a narrow window of up to two years in which they may be able to intervene to change retiring workers' decisions by offering them incentives to remain with the company. Employers may just need to ask: Many retirees report they would have been open to an approach from their employer asking them to stay longer with the company. Sixty-one percent say they would have viewed the experience positively. Just 10 percent indicate they would have reacted negatively to an approach asking them to delay their retirement. Work incentives vary in appeal: The survey tested a total of 19 possible incentives that might encourage retiring workers to postpone retirement. Four of these appear especially likely to be successful: Half of retirees (48 percent) indicate that feeling truly needed for an assignment would have been extremely or very effective in encouraging them to delay their retirement. Moreover, of those ranking this as one of the top two most effective incentives, 72 percent say it might have prompted them to stay at least two more years with the company. Half of retirees with a defined benefit pension state receiving a full pension while working part time would have been effective in delaying their retirement (50 percent), and almost as many feel this way about receiving a partial pension while working part time (44 percent). Seven in 10 of those rating each among the top two most effective incentives report they would likely have stayed at least two more years if it had been offered to them (72 percent for full pension, 71 percent for partial pension). However, this would necessitate a change in federal law and several other compensation-related incentives may be almost as compelling. Thirty-eight percent report that being able to work seasonally or on a contract basis would have been effective in encouraging them to delay retirement. Among those rating this as one of the top two incentives, more than three-quarters (77 percent) say it might have prompted them to stay two years or more with the company.     

Employee benefits, retirement patterns, and implications for increased work life

This Issue Brief examines why policymakers are concerned about the trend toward early retirement and how it relates to Social Security, Medicare, and employee health and retirement benefits. It reviews the rationale for the effects of economic incentives on early retirement decisions and includes a summary of empirical literature on the retirement process. It presents data on how employee benefits influence workers' expected retirement patterns. Finally, it examines the implications of public policies to reverse early-retirement trends and raise the eligibility age for Social Security and Medicare. An employee Benefit Research Institute/Gallup survey indicates that there is a direct link between a worker's decision to retire early and the availability of retiree health benefits. In 1993, 61 percent of workers reported that they would not retire before becoming eligible for Medicare if their employer did not provide retiree health benefits. Participation in a pension plan can be an important determinant of retirement. Twenty-one percent of pension plan participants planned to stop working before age 65, compared with 12 percent among nonparticipants. Workers whose primary pension plan was a defined benefit plan were more likely to expect to stop working before age 65 (23 percent) than workers whose primary plan was a defined contribution plan (18 percent). Expected income replacement rates effect retirement patterns, indicating that as the expected replacement increases, the probability of expecting to stop working before age 65 increases. Twenty-two percent of workers with an expected income replacement rate below 60 percent expected to stop working before age 65, compared with 29 percent for those in the 60-69 percent replacement range, and 30 percent for those in the 70-79 percent replacement range. Workers expecting to receive retiree health insurance are more likely to expect to stop working before age 65 than workers who do not expect to have retiree health insurance. Twenty-one percent of workers with retiree health insurance expected to stop working before age 65, compared with 12 percent of workers not expecting to receive retiree health insurance. The Social Security Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) program depends on obtaining sufficient revenue from active workers' payroll taxes to fund the benefits received by retired beneficiaries. Funding the program in the past was in large part effortless because of the relatively large number of workers per retiree. Today, funding the program is a greater challenge because the ratio of workers to retirees has fallen. Policymakers have been able to agree that reform of the program is necessary for its survival; however, the debate over options to reform the program is just beginning, and it is likely to be a long time before a consensus emerges.     

Ergonomics of bridge employment

In many countries of the world, retirement is mandatory at the age at which persons who hold certain jobs or offices are required by employment law to leave their employment, or retire (60 to 65 years). Typically, this is justified by the argument that certain occupations are either too dangerous or require high levels of physical skills and mental work. Every worker has to leave the workforce at that age. However, starting from the last two decades of the last century, it is observed that retirees live more years in retirement than ever before. This relatively long retirement as well as retirees' body fitness made many of them engage in new jobs which are either similar to their career jobs, or completely different from them. In this new type of employment which is called "bridge employment', the retired worker may spend more than ten years. But, to what extent these new jobs are fitted to the aged worker? Considering that experiencing any type of event increases the risk of worse health outcomes over time, bridge employment should be ergonomically designed if it is to fit the aged worker characteristics (physical, mental and affective).     

Physical workload and thoughts of retirement

The aim of this paper is to present Finnish employees' opinions on continuing work until retirement pension and after the age of 63, and to find out if physical workload is related to these opinions. Altogether 39% of men and 40% of women had never had thoughts of early retirement, and 59% claimed (both men and women) that they would consider working beyond the age of 63. Own health (20%); financial gain such as salary and better pension (19%); meaningful, interesting and challenging work (15%); flexible working hours or part-time work (13%); lighter work load (13%); good work community (8%); and good work environment (6%) were stated as factors affecting the decision to continue working after the age of 63. Employees whose work involved low physical workload had less thoughts of early retirement and had considered continuing work after the age of 63 more often than those whose work involved high physical loads. Own health in particular was stated as a reason to consider continuing work by employees whose work was physically demanding.     

Older men in employed and retired families

Although much research on household work has focused on young dual-career couples, there has been speculation that retirement may have a significant effect on the arrangement of household activities in later life. Furthermore, involvement in the household is believed to influence psychological well-being. Available literature, however, provides contradictory evidence regarding the extent to which integration into household activities may either reduce or contribute to stress. The degree to which male involvement in the household in later life was stressful was examined in this research. Data were analyzed from structured interviews with 1165 older, married men who were employed full-time, part-time, or retired. Employed men were significantly less involved in the household than were the retired; however, men participated more in both masculine and feminine tasks if their wives were employed. Involvement in the household was not stressful although the benefits derived from participation varied somewhat by type of task.     

From passive to active consumers? Later life consumption in the UK from 1968–2005

The significance of the UK's ageing population has been generally acknowledged, however its implications for consumption have been neglected. The consumption patterns of older people are important given that the end of the 20^th century witnessed profound changes to the nature of later life, many linked to the emergence of 'consumer societies' in the UK and elsewhere. The uneven nature of retirement, as well as the relative affluence of many retired people, has important effects on patterns and experiences of consumption. This paper charts consumption by retired households in two areas; ownership of key consumer goods and key components of household spending. We investigate how these expenditure trends compare with other household types and across pseudo-birth cohorts. We draw data from 9 years of the Family Expenditure Survey taken at 5 year intervals between 1968 and 2004/5. The data demonstrate the growing extent of ownership of key goods in retired households but also show the differences in proportional expenditure between retired households and the employed. We also note differences between pseudo-birth cohorts and conclude that consumption patterns in later life are influenced by the generational habitus of the differing cohorts who entered retirement between the 1960s and the present day.     

Mobile pensioners: retirement migrants’ perspectives of EU citizenship and free movement

The European institutions picture EU citizens as important actors in the process of transforming EU citizenship into a “tangible reality”. By knowing and practising EU citizenship rights, EU citizens are supposed to give meaning and depth to the otherwise hollow concept of EU citizenship. What EU citizenship means for mobile citizens themselves and how EU citizens practice and evaluate their rights (“lived citizenship”) is generally not a central theme in reports and studies on EU citizenship. In this article the value of EU citizenship will be discussed by applying a qualitative research approach and by focusing on retired EU citizens’ perspectives and practice of, in particular, free movement. This article applies a comparative approach and includes EU citizens who move or return from the Netherlands to Spain or Turkey after retirement. Four groups of EU citizens move between these countries: Dutch nationals who move to Spain, Spanish nationals who return to Spain, Dutch nationals who move to Turkey and Turkish dual-nationals who return to Turkey after retirement. This article shows that migratory background, country of origin, country of retirement and the way in which EU citizenship is acquired determine retirement migrants’ perspectives and practice of EU citizenship.     

Recent Changes in Male Income*

This paper explicitly defines two perspectives for investigating change: the longitudinal and the cross-sectional. After examining changes in male income between 1950 and 1970 by following cohorts through time, we identify a pattern of income changes with age which is quite different from that obtained in a cross-sectional analysis. On a longitudinal basis, it is evident that as men age to the retirement years that their income continually increases. A cross-sectional analysis leads to the conclusion that there is a decline in income during the latter working years. Two simple models (using change in the cost of living and productivity levels) are offered to help account for the patterns of income change. Although adjustments for varying costs of living and productivity levels slightly alter the pattern the two substantially different conclusions are not changed to any great degree. The implications of these conflicting statements are discussed.     

Impact of retirement type on income for people with disabilities

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of involuntary retirement on the economic security of persons with a disability. Very little research examines the economic consequences to forced retirement and no research focuses on persons with disabilities who have a higher rate of involuntary retirement than the general population. Analysing the 2006 Canadian Participation and Activity Limitation Survey, we find that persons with a disability who involuntarily retire have lower median personal and household incomes and they are more likely to be under the low-income cut-off point than those who retire voluntarily. When socio-demographic, socio-economic and geographical characteristics are controlled; those who retired involuntarily are more likely to be under the low-income cut-off point than those whose retirement was voluntary. Further, those who retired involuntarily are more likely to receive disability benefits whereas those who retired voluntarily are more likely to receive retirement income. The authors argue for employers and governments to implement accommodation in the workplace and flexible employment opportunities so that more persons with disabilities are able to continue in their employment for as long as possible.     

IDENTITY DILEMMAS OF CHRONICALLY ILL MEN

Chronic illness frequently comes to men suddenly with immediate intensity, severity, and uncertainty. Because men contract more serious and life-threatening chronic illnesses than women, experiencing illness causes men different identity dilemmas. This paper explores men's identity dilemmas by studying how men experience chronic illnesses and by looking at how assumptions about masculinity affected their identity. The paper explores four major processes: (1) awakening to death after a lifethreatening crisis, (2) accommodating to uncertainty as men realize that the crisis has lasting consequences for their lives, (3) defining illness and disability and (4) preserving self to maintain a sense of coherence while experiencing loss and change. The data are derived from forty in-depth formal interviews of twenty men, informal interviews with these men, and an extensive collection of published and unpublished personal accounts. The data were analyzed through the strategies of grounded theory.     

The impact of deferring retirement age on retirement income adequacy

UPDATE OF RSPM-POST-65 RETIREMENT AGES: The EBRI Retirement Security Projection Model (RSPM) was developed in 2003 to provide an assessment of national retirement income prospects. The 2011 version of RSPM adds a new feature that allows households to defer retirement age past age 65 in an attempt to determine whether retirement age deferral is indeed sufficiently valuable to mitigate retirement income adequacy problems for most households (assuming the worker is physically able to continue working and that there continues to be a suitable demand for his or her skills). The answer, unfortunately, is not always "yes," even if retirement age is deferred into the 80s. LOWEST-INCOME LEVELS, 50-50 CHANCE OF ADEQUACY: RSPM baseline results indicate that the lowest preretirement income quartile would need to defer retirement age to 84 before 90 percent of the households would have a 50 percent probability of success. Although a significant portion of the improvement takes place in the first four years after age 65, the improvement tends to level off in the early 70s before picking up in the late 70s and early 80s. Households in higher preretirement income quartiles start at a much higher level, and therefore have less improvement in terms of additional households reaching a 50 percent success rate as retirement age is deferred for these households. LOWEST-INCOME LEVELS, HIGHER CHANCES OF ADEQUACY: If the success rate is moved to a threshold of 70 percent, only 2 out of 5 households in the lowest-income quartile will attain retirement income adequacy even if they defer retirement age to 84. Increasing the threshold to 80 percent reduces the number of lowest preretirement income quartile households that can satisfy this standard at a retirement age of 84 to approximately 1 out of 7. IMPORTANCE OF DEFINED CONTRIBUTION RETIREMENT PLANS: One of the factors that makes a major difference in the percentage of households satisfying the retirement income adequacy thresholds at any retirement age is whether the worker is still participating in a defined contribution plan after age 65. This factor results in at least a 10 percentage point difference in the majority of the retirement age/income combinations investigated. FACTORING IN RETIREMENT HEALTH COSTS: Another factor that has a tremendous impact on the value of deferring retirement age is whether stochastic post-retirement health care costs are excluded (or the stochastic nature is ignored). For the lowest preretirement income quartile, the value of deferral (in terms of percentage of additional households that will meet the threshold by deferring retirement age from 65 to 84) decreases from 16.0 percent to 3.8 percent by excluding these costs. The highest preretirement income quartile experiences a similar decrease, from 12.8 percent to 2.6 percent.     

LINGERING IDENTITIES IN RETIREMENT

Older workers were followed through their first two years of retirement in order to explore the lingering effects of preretirement identities on their retirement adjustment and self-esteem. Several interesting findings emerged. Preretirement identities and social background characteristics influenced initial retirement adjustment and later changes in retirement adjustment. In addition, lingering preretirement worker identity and emerging retirement adjustment influenced self-esteem two years into retirement. Further, while there were no overall gender differences, some individual identities and social background characteristics influenced retirement adjustment and self-esteem in a different manner for men and women.     

Australian baby boomers retiring ‘early’: Understanding the benefits of retirement preparation for involuntary and voluntary retirees

The first of the baby boomers have reached retirement age, but some have retired ‘early’ with varying degrees of personal choice. Preparation for retirement can lead to well-being in later life, but few studies have considered the preparations of involuntary retirees or the pathways that link their preparations with retirement outcomes. This research draws on a sample of 304 retirees from the Ageing Baby Boomers in Australia Study (2009) to examine how preparedness for retirement relates to voluntary and involuntary retirees' life satisfaction and how this relationship is explained by psychological, activity-based, and economic theories. Preparedness predicted life satisfaction for voluntary and involuntary retirees and each of theoretical pathways was supported. Although those retiring involuntarily were less prepared than voluntary retirees, their preparatory behaviours were still associated with life satisfaction. These results suggest that retirement policy and planning initiatives should aim to facilitate a holistic approach to retirement planning for future retirees, particularly those facing an early and unexpected retirement.     

Women and retirement: relinquishing professional identity

Twenty-eight interviews were conducted with a sample of 14 retired professional women with continuous work histories. Life history data about the meaning of retirement and the relationship of retirement to issues of identity were collected. By using the grounded theory method, the investigator identified a common theme experienced among the women interviewed: the sacrificing of one's professional identity following retirement, the loss of social contacts, the loss of professional challenges, and encountering stereotypes during retirement. Data from this study indicate women with continuous work histories may enter retirement with apparent ease, yet experience difficulty adjusting to the loss of their professional role. Further research investigating the transition for women from professional status to retirement status is needed.     

MOBILITY FROM PRERETIREMENT TO POSTRETIREMENT JOB

While the normative pattern of retirement is complete cessation of labor force activity, approximately one-third of men work during their retirement. This research focuses on such "working-retirees" by investigating the prevalence and patterns of occupational mobility from pre- to postretirement job, as well as the impact that institutional constraints on (re)employment in later life may have on the chances of occupational mobility. Using data from the older men's cohort of the National Longitudinal Surveys, a sample of working-retirees was extracted from men who retired between 1967 and 1978. Results showed a substantial amount of occupational mobility among the working-retired. The structure of mobility was found to be similar to younger labor force participants in that most mobility consists of moves to adjacent occupational categories. Unlike career mobility of nonretired workers, however, the large majority of moves constituted downward mobility. Using the economic segmentation perspective, log-linear and logistic regression analyses indicated that working-retirees whose preretirement jobs were in the core sector were more likely to experience occupational mobility. As a more specific indicator of bureaucratic control of the labor force, industry-level pension coverage rates were used in the logistic regressions and higher rates of pension coverage were found to result in a greater likelihood of mobility. These results indicate that the considerable occupational mobility experienced by working-retirees is partially the result of structural constraints on the employment of older men.     

Individual and institutional push and pull factors as predictors of retirement timing in Europe: A multilevel analysis

The number of retired people in Europe has increased significantly in recent decades. It remains unclear, however, whether individuals are more likely to be pulled toward retirement by their expectations about life after retirement than they are to be pushed out of the labour market due to poor health or dislike of one's job. The fact that retirement timing differs rather considerably between European countries suggests that not only micro, but also macro push (i.e. labour market constraints) and pull (i.e. economic incentives) factors influence retirement decisions. This duality heightens the need to determine the influence of micro-level and macro-level push and pull indicators on the retirement timing of older workers (50 +) in Europe. Results are obtained performing multilevel event history analysis using longitudinal micro data from the first (2004/05) and second (2006/07) waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and macro data derived from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Eurostat. The results indicate that at the individual level, older workers are pushed out due to health problems as well as being attracted towards retirement to spend time with their grandchildren. At the institutional level, financial incentives such as a high implicit tax on continued work and high expenditures on early exit schemes make retirement attractive, whereas the institutional push context is of lesser importance.     

Banning alcohol in a major college stadium: impact on the incidence and patterns of injury and illness

To evaluate the effect of banning alcohol on the incidence of injuries and illness among spectators, we reviewed 4 years (1983 to 1986) of medical incident reports from a major collegiate football stadium. At no time had alcoholic beverages been sold inside the stadium, but before 1985, fans were allowed to bring alcohol into the stadium. In 1985, this practice was banned. During the study period, 340 medical incidents (M = 12.6/game) were reported. Several alterations of specific injury/illness patterns were noted after initiation of the ban: heat-related illness occurred more frequently before initiation of the ban, whereas extremity injuries and syncope (fainting from coronary insufficiency) occurred with greater frequency afterwards. The injury/illness rates per 10,000 fans were 2.95 in 1983, 2.45 in 1984, 1.92 in 1985, and 3.48 in 1986. There was no significant change in the overall incident rate after the ban. Evaluation of medical incidents revealed an alteration in specific injury/illness patterns but no change in overall incidence after institution of the ban. Future investigations are needed to elucidate more clearly the impact of banning alcohol on injury/illness rates and patterns at mass gatherings.     

Reported Reasons for Retirement: A Study of Recently Retired Workers

The normal retirement age in the United States is gradually increasing from 65 to 67 (by the year 2027) as provided by the 1983 Amendments to the Social Security Act. One can raise the question, "Who will be the most affected by this change?" This article presents the findings from a study that investigated the relationship between the primary reason given by recently retired workers for their retirement and their economic and demographic backgrounds. A logistic regression analysis was performed using data from the 1982 New Beneficiary Survey concerning involuntary reasons. A major finding was that economically disadvantaged workers tended to retire for involuntary reasons. Therefore, policymakers need to consider the establishment of policies that would protect such workers from the adverse financial impact of the increase in the normal retirement age.