How to explain gender-specific differences in the motivation to retire early in older employees in Germany? Results from the LIDA-Cohort study

Abstract

Introduction Early retirement is still common in Germany, as in other European countries. Yet, its meaning for the nation's welfare has a higher relevance in times of ageing and shrinking workforces due to the demographic change. Therefore, the investigation of factors with influence on early work exits like the motivation to retire early is important. This motivation might differ between older female and male employees in Germany as well, as it has been shown for other countries. Knowledge about gender-specific differences in the motivation to retire early could be helpful in retaining the workforce. Therefore, we investigated the difference in the motivation to retire early in older female and male employees in Germany and sociodemographic, work and non-work-related factors possibly associated with it. Methods A total of 3961 employees born in 1959 or 1965, subject to social insurance, living throughout Germany and having participated in working life in both waves of the lidA-cohort study (2011 und 2014) were included. Motivation to retire early was parameterized by the employees’ wish to retire before the age of 65. Work-related variables were occupational position, manual occupation, working time, work-related stress (Effort-reward imbalance), influence on work, satisfaction with leadership, work-to-privacy conflict (Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire) and physical work ability (Work Ability Index). Covariates were age, education, number of children at home, partner's employment status, subjective health (12-Item Short Form Health Survey), depressive symptoms (Becks Depression Inventory) and financial possibility to retire early. After testing for gender-specific interactions female and male employees were analysed separately to explore different influences on motivation to retire early using multiple logistic regression analysis. Missing values were replaced by multiple imputations with the Fully Conditional Specification method. Results Female employees more often wanted to retire early than male (87.6% vs. 83.8%, P Conclusions Of course, not a single factor alone can explain the gender difference in the frequency of the motivation to retire early. Regarding our results, the gender-specific differences in the frequency of low physical work ability and in the association between influence on work and the wish to retire early, may partly explain this difference. To equalise gender-specific disparities in these work-related factors may contribute to lower differences in the motivation to retire early between older female and male employees.