Comparing Late Working Life and Retirement in Europe and the US: The Development of Social Inequalities in Times of Globalization and Aging Societies

Abstract

The main purpose ofthe country studies assembled in this book is to examine systematically how late employment careers, the timing of retirement and the level of pension incomes have changed over the last decades in the course of globalization, economic restructuring and demographic aging in a wide range of European and North American countries (Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States). Not so long ago, the late employment career was considered to be a relatively stable phase in the life of workers, and early retirement a se cure bridge into a comparatively well-paid pensioner's life. Of course, countries have always differed somewhat in the paths they travel. Early retirement was the major option installed to ease a tight labor market in countries such as Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, or Spain, whereas in societies shaped more strongly by the liberal market ideology (United Kingdom, United States) or by the goal of full employment (Denmark, Sweden), working until higher ages was fostered either passively or actively. Nonetheless, in modem societies, a relatively secure late employment career with lower than average or only average unemployment risks and a trend toward retiring early were visible throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and partially the 1990s (Kohli et al. 1991; Blossfeld, Buchholz and Hofacker 2006). However, macro-economic as well as demographic dynamics have changed over time, and public pension policies have been redirected.