Working Hours Flexibility and Timing of Retirement: Findings from Europe

This study investigates how flexibility in working hours affects retirement timing. It tests the assumption that decreasing weekly working hours delays retirement and extends working life. Using data from four waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), we analyze whether a shift from full-time to part-time work delays retirement. Results show that older workers who reduce their working hours retire earlier than those who stay in full-time employment. The effect is stronger in Central and Eastern Europe than in Scandinavian countries. No interaction effects for gender and work strain are found. We conclude that part-time work at the end of the career, as a means to extend working life, should be reevaluated.     

Ungrateful slaves? An examination of job quality and job satisfaction for male part-time workers in the UK

Research on part-time work has concentrated over many decades on the experiences of women but male part-time employment is growing in the UK. This article addresses two sizable gaps in knowledge concerning male part-timers: are men's part-time jobs of lower quality than men's full-time jobs? Are male part-timers more or less job-satisfied compared to their full-time peers? A fundamental part of both interrogations is whether men's part-time employment varies by occupational class. The article is motivated by the large body of work on female part-timers. Its theoretical framework is rooted in one of the most controversial discussions in the sociology of women workers: the “grateful slave” debate that emerged in the 1990s when researchers sought to explain why so many women expressed job satisfaction with low-quality part-time jobs. Innovatively, this article draws upon those contentious ideas to provide new insights into male, rather than female, part-time employment. Based upon analysis of a large quantitative data set, the results provide clear evidence of low-quality male part-time employment in the UK, when compared with men's full-time jobs. Men working part-time also express deteriorating satisfaction with jobs overall and in several specific dimensions of their jobs. Male part-timers in lower occupational class positions retain a clear “lead” both in bad job quality and low satisfaction. The article asks whether decreasingly satisfied male part-time workers should be termed “ungrateful slaves?” It unpacks the “grateful slave” metaphor and, after doing so, rejects its value for the ongoing analysis of part-time jobs in the formal labor market.     

Scheduling challenges among workers in low-wage hourly jobs: similarities and differences among workers in standard- and nonstandard-hour jobs

Work schedules are a central theme in the work–family challenges of low-wage hourly workers. Yet, research on scheduling patterns among this worker population has primarily focused on nonstandard schedules. We know very little about the scheduling patterns of workers in hourly jobs with standard fixed schedules. Knowledge about the key scheduling challenges by schedule type is necessary to develop targeted workplace solutions, such as flexible work arrangements, to enhance work–life fit among workers in low-wage hourly jobs. Using the 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce, bivariate and multivariate analyses were employed to determine (1) the prevalence of rigid, unpredictable and unstable work schedules among low-wage hourly workers employed in jobs with standard and nonstandard schedules and whether there is variation in these scheduling practices among full- and part-time workers; and (2) the individual or job characteristics that influence the odds of experiencing rigid, unpredictable or unstable work schedules. Results indicate that rigid and unpredictable schedule practices are most prevalent among low-wage hourly workers in full-time standard-hour jobs and part-time nonstandard-hour jobs, while unstable scheduling practices are most prevalent among hourly workers in full- and part-time nonstandard-hour jobs. Implications and limitations of the research are discussed.     

Transitions to part-time work at older ages: the case of people with disabilities in Europe

This paper analyses the labour-force transitions of older workers with disabilities in general, particularly workers’ transitions to and from part-time employment within a European context. Using the two first waves (2004 and 2007) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, we compare transitions between employment statuses for disabled and non-disabled individuals, even after controlling for different disability trajectories. In addition, we employ a multivariate framework to examine the determinants for remaining in part-time work in 2007 for those individuals who were part-timers in 2004. The results show that older people with long-term disabilities have a higher probability of staying in a part-time job than their compared counterparts. Policy-makers must promote part-time employment as a means of increasing employment opportunities for older workers with disabilities and support gradual retirement opportunities with flexible and reduced working hours.     

Working and Non-Working Students: Roles,Support and Well-Being

Abstract

A questionnaire containing measures of physical and psychological symptoms and social support was completed by 142 MSW students. Students were grouped into three categories: Full-time students with no job, full-time students with part-time jobs, and part-time students with full-time jobs. Full-time students with part-time jobs reported more symptoms than full-time students with no jobs, a finding interpreted as consistent with a demands/resources analysis of stress. The latter group did not differ from part-time students with full-time jobs, despite the difference in number of roles held. Analysis controlling for associated variables indicated that it was the specific combination of full-time student and part-time work, not the total number of roles occupied, that was associated with higher distress. Evidence for a “buffering” effect of social support was found only for this high distress group. Results are discussed in terms of recent formulations concerning stress and multiple role occupancy, and suggestions are offered concerning the value of supporting stress-prone students.     

Labor Market Search and Optimal Retirement Policy

A popular and long‐standing view is that social security is a means for young, unemployed people to “purchase” jobs from older workers. Can social security, by encouraging retirement and hence creating job vacancies for the young, improve the allocation of workers to jobs? Maybe, according to a standard model of labor market search, but public retirement programs currently pay the elderly substantially more than their jobs are worth. An important effect is that retirement reduces the value of other vacant jobs. Our results imply that recent reforms aimed at reducing retirement incentives are likely to improve labor market efficiency.     

Public policy and part-time employment

VI. Conclusions What are the policy implications of these findings? One thing is clear: Recently employers have avoided hiring full-time employees. With the dramatic slowing in the growth of full-time jobs has come a rise in the relative importance of part-time employment, particularly of the involuntary kind. The root cause of this phenomenon is suggested by the history of the past two decades, which contain periods of both extremely weak and very strong full-time job growth. The pattern is obvious: When there is strong full-time job growth, involuntary part-time work fades in importance. One other pattern is also evident: The periods of relatively weak full-time job growth and increasing importance of involuntary part-time employment are also times of growth in levels of income taxation and the volume of governmental regulation. By contrast, the period of very pronounced growth in full-time employment and reduced incidence of involuntary part-time work is characterized by lowered income tax rates and the relaxing of governmental regulations. From the policy standpoint, it appears that if involuntary part-time work is a problem, the most direct way to deal with it is to return to the economic policies of the 1981–1989 era that generated such remarkable overall job growth in the American economy.     

Karrieren nach der Rente: Karriere- und Arbeitsvorstellungen von arbeitenden Rentner*innen

The employment rate of German older workers has rapidly risen in the last 15 years. The steepest increase was found among those older than 65. The number of these working pensioners has more than doubled between 2000 and 2015. However only little gerontological and psychological research on working pensioners can be found. Companies and human resources managers seem rather unprepared, as almost no organisational career and development models exist for this group. Based on data from the survey “Transitions and Old Age Potential: Übergänge und Alternspotenziale (TOP)” the article at hand investigates older workers (age 50–65), attitudes towards potentially working in retirement. The results show that about half of the respondents consider working in addition to receiving a pension. However, they prefer part-time employment with on average 20?hours a week over full-time employment. In addition, this article discusses how the preference of this employment group fits with existing career models. We find that there is not one but several career models for working pensioners that human resource strategies should be mindful of.     

Effect of Health on Retirement of Older Americans: a Competing Risks Study

Retirement is an important event in the life of an individual. The decision to retire or exit from full-time employment may be motivated by several factors, including health. This paper explores the effect of both subjective and relatively more objective physical and mental health conditions on the probability of exit from full-time employment. Using longitudinal data on older Americans from ten waves of the Health and Retirement Study (1992–2010), eight health indices are created from a wide range of health measures by principal component analysis. The effect of these health indices on the time until exit from full-time employment is empirically examined in a proportional hazard model. Single and competing risk specifications are estimated that allow for multiple spells of full-time employment and control for unobserved heterogeneity. The main results suggest that better self-reported health decreases the likelihood of exit from full- time employment, while poor physical health (functional limitations factor) increases the likelihood of exit from full-time employment via complete retirement and disability. For mental health, I find that depression increases the likelihood of exit via complete retirement, part-time work and unemployment while cognitive disorders lead to an increase in likelihood of exit via the disability exit route. Hence, physical and mental health problems are both impediments to continued work. These results have implications for public policies targeted towards retaining older workers within the labor market.     

Labor Market Penalties for Mothers in Italy

We use a large Italian employer-employee matched dataset to study how motherhood affects women’s working career in terms of labor force participation and wages. We confirm that the probability of exiting employment significantly increases for mothers of pre-school children; however, this is mitigated by higher job quality, human capital endowment and childcare accessibility. Most importantly, the availability of part-time jobs reduces their probability of moving out of the labor force. Women not leaving employment after becoming mothers experience lower wages than women with no pre-school child, and there are no signs of this gap closing 5 years after childbirth. Contrary to previous literature, the wage gap penalty emerges only among women working full-time, thanks to the high protection accorded to part-time jobs in Italy.     

Le temps du remue-ménage. Conditions d'emploi et de travail de femmes de chambre

It is now admitted that part-time work is a signal of inequality between the sexes, in both work and family. By focusing on cleavages among women, an analysis is made of how worktime and the company’s position as a subcontractor combine so as to produce inequality among wage-earners by assigning them heterogeneous statuses and thus forcing some of them to cope with precarious working, employment and living conditions. This study of the working and employment conditions of chamber maids in France focuses on those who work part or full-time in cleaning companies under contract with other firms. Inside this rather unskilled group of women, part-time work stresses the differences produced by subcontracting and worsens the inequality between stable, full-time employees and the women subcontracted at part-time who do the same job. These cleavages set off a strike among these part-time workers. Analyzing this labor dispute has shed light on the social relations running through the firm and on invisible issues in work and employment for these women with jobs in the shadows.     

Social Protection for Retirees

Jobs are changing in ways that will reduce benefits for retirees. This paper explores the variety of pressures that will tend to produce this result. One major factor is that employers have been responding to cost pressures and the need for flexibility by redesigning jobs. There has been a trend-which is likely to continue-toward more part-time and temporary jobs, more subcontracting, and more contingent-pay systems. The consequences are complex and not all bad, but for retirees the tendency will be toward fewer, less generous, or less secure benefits. As workers approach retirement age facing the prospect of diminished benefits, increasing numbers of them will have to choose work to maintain their standard of living. At the same time, demographic pressures will gradually push employers to seek new pools of workers, including retirees. Gradually, employers are likely to provide fewer social-protection benefits to older people, but more employment opportunities.     

Social protection for retirees: the diminishing role of employers

Jobs are changing in ways that will reduce benefits for retirees. This paper explores the variety of pressures that will tend to produce this result. One major factor is that employers have been responding to cost pressures and the need for flexibility by redesigning jobs. There has been a trend--which is likely to continue--toward more part-time and temporary jobs, more subcontracting, and more contingent-pay systems. The consequences are complex and not all bad, but for retirees the tendency will be toward fewer, less generous, or less secure benefits. As workers approach retirement age facing the prospect of diminished benefits, increasing numbers of them will have to choose work to maintain their standard of living. At the same time, demographic pressures will gradually push employers to seek new pools of workers, including retirees. Gradually, employers are likely to provide fewer social-protection benefits to older people, but more employment opportunities.     

The impact of the 2007-2009 recession on workers' health coverage

IMPACT OF THE RECESSION: The 2007-2009 recession has taken its toll on the percentage of the population with employment-based health coverage. While, since 2000, there has been a slow erosion in the percentage of individuals under age 65 with employment-based health coverage, 2009 was the first year in which the percentage fell below 60 percent, and marked the largest one-year decline in coverage. FEWER WORKERS WITH COVERAGE: The percentage of workers with coverage through their own job fell from 53.2 percent in 2008 to 52 percent in 2009, a 2.4 percent decline in the likelihood that a worker has coverage through his or her own job. The percentage of workers with coverage as a dependent fell from 17 percent in 2008 to 16.3 percent in 2009, a 4.5 percent drop in the likelihood that a worker has coverage as a dependent. These declines occurred as the unemployment rate increased from an average of 5.8 percent in 2008 to 9.3 percent in 2009 (and reached a high of 10.1 percent during 2009). FIRM SIZE/INDUSTRY: The decline in the percentage of workers with coverage from their own job affected workers in private-sector firms of all sizes. Among public-sector workers, the decline from 73.4 percent to 73 percent was not statistically significant. Workers in all private-sector industries experienced a statistically significant decline in coverage between 2008 and 2009. HOURS WORKED: Full-time workers experienced a decline in coverage that was statistically significant while part-time workers did not. Among full-time workers, those employed full year experienced a statistically significant decline in coverage from their own job. Those employed full time but for only part of the year did not experience a statistically significant change in coverage. Among part-time workers, those employed full year experienced a statistically significant increase in the likelihood of having coverage in their own name, as did part-time workers employed for only part of the year. ANNUAL EARNINGS: The decline in the percentage of workers with coverage through their own job was limited to workers with lower annual earnings. Statistically significant declines were not found among any group of workers with annual earnings of at least $40,000. DEMOGRAPHICS: Workers with a high school education or less experienced a statistically significant decline in the likelihood of having coverage. Neither workers with a college degree nor those with a graduate degree experienced a statistically significant decline in coverage through their own job. Workers of all races experienced statistically significant declines in coverage between 2008 and 2009. Both men and women experienced a statistically significant decline in the percentage with health coverage through their own job. IMPACT OF STRUCTURAL CHANGES TO THE WORK FORCE: The movement of workers from the manufacturing industry to the service sector continued between 2008 and 2009. The percentage of workers employed on a full-time basis decreased while the percentage working part time increased. While there was an overall decline in the percentage of full-time workers, that decline was limited to workers employed full year. The percentage of workers employed on a full-time, part-year basis increased between 2008 and 2009. The distribution of workers by annual earnings shifted from middle-income workers to lower-income workers between 2008 and 2009.     

Role of workplace safety: a revisit of the relationship between job satisfaction and employment status

This study evaluated the relationship between employment status (i.e., part- and full-time) and job satisfaction, with the focus on the moderating roles of perceived injury risk and injury incidence. The results found that the level of job satisfaction for full-time workers was about the same regardless of the level of injury risk they perceived. In contrast, job satisfaction of part-time workers was significantly higher when they perceived low injury risk rather than high injury risk. The findings also supported the potential adverse impact of injury incidence and injury risk on job satisfaction for both part- and full-time workers. This study highlighted the importance of understanding both workplace safety and job satisfaction when attempting to understand the differences between part-time and full-time workers.     

Jobs for Mothers: Married Women's Labor Force Reentry and Part-Time,Temporary Employment in Japan

This paper explains the increase in middle-aged women reentering the labor force in Japan and their concentration in part-time or temporary employment. Existing explanations attribute women's concentration in part-time employment too narrowly to supply or demand factors. In Japan, both the labor supply of middle-aged women and the demand for part-time workers have increased, but these conditions channel middle-aged women into part-time or temporary employment only when systematic barriers obstruct their access to full-time jobs. Because it plays an important role in women's employment decisions, the rigidity of standard, full-time employment needs greater attention in studies of nonstandard, atypical types of work.     

Bridge employment and job stopping: evidence from the Harris/Commonwealth Fund Survey

This article analyzes a 1989 Louis Harris and Associates survey designed to elicit information on the employment histories and job-stopping behavior of men and women who then were approaching or had recently reached retirement age. The results indicate that retirement often occurs gradually and includes a substantial period of "bridge employment." Most bridge jobholders work full-time, by choice, and report high levels of job enjoyment. Occupational mobility occurring late in life typically involves upward movement, although the pattern of change is quite different when it takes place outside, rather than within, the longest job. The principal concern identified in this article is the limited ability of some groups of workers (nonwhites, females, the less educated, and those in poorly compensated occupations) to either retain longest jobs or to obtain acceptable bridge employment. Health problems also frequently lead to early departures from the labor force.     

Factors impacting intention to leave in social workers and child care workers employed at voluntary agencies

Introduction

To ameliorate high turnover in child welfare, researchers have attempted to identify factors that lead to undesirable turnover. While this has been studied extensively, little attention has been paid to turnover based upon job roles. Like social workers in child welfare, the field of child care also experiences high turnover. Child care workers employed in child welfare settings are no exception. The current study seeks to understand differential factors that impact intent to leave for preventive and child care workers employed in child welfare agencies.

Materials and methods

Data for prevention workers (n = 538) were obtained from all preventive service programs under contract with the City. Data for child care workers (n = 222) were obtained from three voluntary agencies located elsewhere in the State. The instrument was a modified version of a survey developed to examine job satisfaction and potential turnover among public child welfare workers. Domains measured included job satisfaction, intention to leave, career commitment, and agency investment. Data were analyzed using bivariate analysis and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM).

Results

Child care workers had more positive perceptions of child welfare and planned to stay in child welfare longer. Despite this, prevention workers felt more invested in their work. Child care and prevention workers had different levels of satisfaction with their jobs although overall job satisfaction did not differ nor did their intention to leave. Tenure at the agency was predictive of career investment. Investment, perceptions of child welfare, satisfaction with nature of work, and contingent rewards were associated with career commitment. Commitment and satisfaction with supervision were the greatest predictors of intention to leave.

Discussion

There is a gap in literature addressing child care workers in child welfare, and future study of this group is needed. Child care workers are just as likely to intend to leave their jobs as prevention workers. For both groups, it appears that investment in their jobs increases commitment to the field which reduces intention to leave.     

How Does Occupational Access for Older Workers Differ by Education?

To assess the employment opportunities of older job-changers in the years prior to retirement, this study examines the how the breadth of occupations in which they find employment narrows as they age past their prime working years and how this differs by gender and educational attainment. The results indicate that workers who change jobs in their early 50s find employment in a reasonably similar set of occupations as prime-age workers, with opportunities narrowing at older ages. They also indicate that job opportunities broadened significantly for better-educated older workers since the late 1990s. While job opportunities now narrow significantly for less-educated men in their late 50s, this narrowing primarily occurs in the early 60s for women and better-educated men. In contrast to previous research, the study finds that employer policies that emphasize hiring from within are less important barriers to the hiring of older job-seekers. The study also finds that the narrowing of job opportunities is associated with a general decline in job quality as measured by median occupational earnings, a decline associated with differences in occupational skill requirements and the underlying economic environment. These results suggest that older hiring is not as limited to a select few occupations as it had been in previous decades, and that policy reforms aimed at increasing opportunities and improving labor market fluidity might best be served if they focused on less-educated men.