Health- and Age-Related Workplace Factors as Predictors of Preferred, Expected, and Actual Retirement Timing: Findings from a Swedish Cohort Study.

Marta Sousa-Ribeiro,Hugo Westerlund,Magnus Sverke,Claudia Bernhard-Oettel

doi:10.3390/ijerph18052746

Marta Sousa-Ribeiro, Hugo Westerlund + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052746

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Abstract

To address the challenges of demographic aging, governments and organizations encourage extended working lives. This study investigates how individual health- and age-related workplace factors contribute to preferred, expected and actual retirement timing, as well as to the congruency between preferences vs. expectations, and preferences vs. actual retirement. We used data from a representative Swedish longitudinal sample comprising 4058 workers aged 50–64, with follow-up data regarding actual retirement timing available for 1164 respondents. Multinomial logistic regression analyses suggest that later preferred, expected, and actual retirement timing were, to different extent, influenced by better health, an age-friendly workplace and feeling positive regarding the future at work. Emotional exhaustion, age-related inequalities at work and experiencing aging as an obstacle increased the likelihood of preferring to retire earlier than one expected to, over retiring at the time one expected to. Those with better health and positive work prospects were less likely to prefer retiring earlier than they expected to, and more likely to being “pulled toward working until 65 and beyond”, compared to being “pulled toward early retirement”. Experiencing aging as an obstacle decreased the chances of being “pulled toward working until 65 and beyond”. The results provide insights on how to facilitate extended working lives.

Highlights

IntroductionWhile increasing numbers of active and healthy older people is a remarkable achievement [2], the fact that people on average receive retirement pensions for a longer period than ever before pressures the pension and social security systems, and raises concerns regarding the adequacy of the pension system to prevent old-age poverty in the future [1,3]
Many countries are facing the issue of an aged society [1]
Apart from the individual, the workplace has a central role in shaping the opportunities for working longer [13], but not enough attention has been paid to the role of the organizational context in older workers’ retirement decision making [5]. Addressing these voids, the present study investigates the relative contribution of health, psychological age climate at the workplace, and perceived future at work to retirement decision making, in a large representative longitudinal sample of older workers in Sweden

Summary

Introduction

While increasing numbers of active and healthy older people is a remarkable achievement [2], the fact that people on average receive retirement pensions for a longer period than ever before pressures the pension and social security systems, and raises concerns regarding the adequacy of the pension system to prevent old-age poverty in the future [1,3]. Understanding the factors that hinder or stimulate longer working lives is relevant for developing effective policies and interventions to increase the employability of older workers and encourage later retirement [4,5]. Most research has focused on either retirement timing preferences, or intentions or actual retirement timing. Less often, these indicators have been considered in repeated study designs following older workers longitudinally. There are still relatively few studies using large and representative samples and longitudinal data [7]

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