Abstract
Recent changes in the pension system may contribute to larger social inequalities and more involuntary late retirement transitions due to financial need. Lower educated workers may have less control over their retirement and may need to stay in the labour market despite poor health. How different aspects of the retirement transitions are related to post-retirement health is unclear. This study investigates health differences across educational levels among 1280 retirees participating in the ‘Health, Ageing and Retirement Transitions in Sweden’ (HEARTS) study. Retirement age and involuntary reasons for retirement were considered as potential mediator and moderators of the social gradient in health outcomes. Results from a path analysis suggest that lower educated retirees are more likely to stop working for physical reasons, which is related to poor post-retirement health. Hence, involuntary retirement mediates the educational effect on health. Linear regressions highlighted the moderating effect of retirement age: lower educated retirees had worse health than higher educated retirees when their transitions were late. Hence, the double disadvantage of lower educated individuals becomes apparent. This study contributes to explaining possible mechanisms of rising health inequalities by focusing on aspects of retirement.
Highlights
Adjusting to population ageing, the institutional context of retirement in Sweden has changed markedly throughout the last decades (Hamblin 2013; König and Lindquist 2016)
The advantages of higher education tend to accumulate over the life course which implies that health differences across educational levels tend to become more pronounced in older ages
Results show that higher education is significantly related to better health and less physical reasons for retirement
Summary
The institutional context of retirement in Sweden has changed markedly throughout the last decades (Hamblin 2013; König and Lindquist 2016). Research suggests that the retirement timing has become more involuntary for certain social groups (Hofäcker et al 2016) as an effect of the privatization and marketization of the pension system (Ebbinghaus 2015). Those with lower lifetime earnings and often those with lower education are forced to work longer to accumulate higher pension benefits in the current, reformed pension system. Comparisons of the effects of educational background for health outcomes in older ages are important
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