Berufliche Aktivität im Ruhestand

Abstract

The combination of the influencing parameters on working beyond retirement permits the conclusion that persons who face the risk of old-age poverty are more likely to work when they are retired.

Retirement Expectations in Germany—Towards Rising Social Inequality?

“…Therefore, they have increased their expected retirement age faster than better-educated workers. This indicates a potential emergence of social inequality in the choice of retirement timing, which has already been pointed out in previous German studies [19,20]. It seems as if the choice when to retire is becoming a privilege only those with high pension claims can afford.…”

“…Now they expect they have to work as long as their peers with better education, but in much harder working conditions and with often physically demanding labor. (2) The increase of the statutory retirement age seems to be more acceptable to those with high education [47] and (3) the share of low-skilled and low-educated older workers in Germany who have to work beyond the official retirement age to ensure a decent standard of living is increasing [19,48].…”

“…They made frequent use of the possibility to retire early via the unemployment and disability insurance, and consequently, when the recent reforms in Germany closed these two pathways into retirement, they had to use alternative, financially less generous retirement options. However, in contrast to the high-skilled 'silver worker', who often occupies identity-enhancing and emotionally rewarding occupations and, therefore, retires late, low-skilled workers now feel the financial necessity of continuing to work and postpone retirement [19]. They expect that they have to work and contribute to the pension system longer in order to achieve sufficient retirement benefits.…”

“…In fact, the employment rate of workers older than 50 years has increased from 40 to 60 percent from the mid-1980s to the mid-2010s [27], and their retirement age has increased as well. Previous research has investigated further consequences of the policy shift and finds that the pension gap between high and low income workers has increased [20,21], that low skilled workers feel more financially pressure to delay retirement [18] and that a growing share of older workers has to work in addition to retirement to meet their needs [19]. This paper adds to this literature and tests how future pensioners in Germany have adapted their expectations of when to retire to the reforms of the pensions system and the labor market.…”

“…In addition to investigating a longer period of time, the analysis will also examine if the increase of the expected retirement age is stable or varies across different types of older workers. Recent studies [18,19] show that especially two groups in Germany continue working past the statutory retirement age: employees with high education, because they often have a high identification with their job, and employees with low education, because they are under financial pressure.…”