Employees’ Emotional, Cognitive, and Behavioral Responses to Increasing Statutory Retirement Ages

Abstract

Increasing statutory retirement ages around the world are forcing employees to prolong their working lives. We study the different ways in which mid- and late-career workers respond to such changes. We distinguish between negative emotions about working longer, cognitive engagement with prolonged employment, and proactive behavior to facilitate longer working lives. We analyze data from 1,351 employees aged 40-66 from the Netherlands. We estimate a structural equation model to identify in which ways experiences of age discrimination, accessibility of accommodative HR facilities, and social norms in the workers’ social networks are related to the three different types of responses. Results show that when employees do not experience age discrimination, when their employer offers easily accessible accommodative HR facilities, and the social norms support prolonged employment, employees have fewer negative emotional reactions and are more likely to behaviorally respond to facilitate longer working lives. When these contexts are misaligned, the reverse is generally found. We also find socioeconomic differences in the ways employees respond to the prospect of prolonged employment. This study shows the importance of supportive contexts at different levels—societally, in organizations, and in individuals’ own lives—for policy changes such as increasing statutory retirement ages to be effective. Different responses between different socioeconomic groups may lead to growing long-term inequality.

Associations between existing and newly diagnosed chronic health conditions and change in subjective life expectancy: Results from a panel study

“…Current retirement policies link every projected year of increase in life expectancy with an increase in public pension eligibility age by 8 months. In line with current life expectancy projections, statutory retirement age for those born in 1970 will be 68 years, while statutory retirement age for those born in 1990 will increase up to 69 years and 6 months ( Oude Mulders, Henkens, & van Dalen, 2021 ).…”

The digital transformation in the psychology of workplace spirituality

“…In principle, the psychology of work studies the three psychological dimensions of emotion, cognition and behavior in the work context (cf. Oude Mulders, Henkens, & van Dalen, 2021). This means that for an interaction model with work variables, the three psychological dimensions are valuable:…”

“…In principle, the psychology of work studies the three psychological dimensions of emotion, cognition and behavior in the work context (cf. Oude Mulders, Henkens, & van Dalen, 2021). This means that for an interaction model with work variables, the three psychological dimensions are valuable: Emotion: How do people feel at and about their work? Cognition: What do people think about and at their work? Behavior: How do people behave during and concerning their work?…”

Older workers' work limitations, vitality and retirement preferences

“…Current retirement policies link every projected year of increase in life expectancy with an increase in public pension eligibility age by 8 months. In line with current life expectancy projections, statutory retirement age for those born in 1970 will be 68 years, while statutory retirement age for those born in 1990 will increase up to 69 years and 6 months (Oude Mulders, Henkens, & van Dalen, 2021). Older workers were recruited using a stratified sampling approach.…”

“…with current life expectancy projections, statutory retirement age for those born in 1970 will be 68 years, while statutory retirement age for those born in 1990 will increase up to 69 years and 6 months (OudeMulders, Henkens, & van Dalen, 2021).What is also intriguing to note is that the Dutch pension law neglects to consider the possibility of reducing statutory retirement age if the average life expectancy in the Netherlands decreases.The multitude of measures taken to prolong working lives have increased the net labor participation of older workers between 60-65 years from 21.7% in 2003 to 62.8% in 2020 (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 2021e). Similar increases were seen for older workers between the ages of 65-70 years, for whom the net labor participation increased from 7.3% in 2003 to 20.1% in 2020 (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 2021e).…”