Working later in the USA and Ireland: implications for precariously and securely employed women

Abstract

Policies to extend working life (EWL) assume homogeneous workers face similar choices about working longer: this may be difficult for women, workers in physically onerous jobs or in low-paid precarious employment. Work-life trajectories are gendered; women interrupt employment and pension-building to provide care. There is occupational variation in capacities to prolong working lives: physically demanding jobs cause work-related health deficits. The precariously employed cannot contribute regularly to pensions and may face age discrimination. This research provides an inter-occupational and cross-national dimension to EWL research, comparing women teachers and health-care workers in the United States of America (USA) and Republic of Ireland. It documents intra-cohort distinctions that emerge among women when considering educational opportunities and occupational tracks expressed in lifecourse trajectories and accumulated capacities for extended work. Analysis draws on interview data from ten teachers and ten health-care workers in each country, comparing the implications of EWL policies for women workers: in precarious versus secure occupations and occupations with different physical demands. It reveals work-life trajectories leading to poorer financial and health outcomes for older health-care workers, especially in the USA. Most women (regardless of occupation or country) opposed extending working life, with concerns ranging from health status and ability to work to the desire to have healthy years in retirement. The most important distinctions are between the occupational categories considered, rather than cross-national differences. Implications for national and work-place policy and research are considered.

A research framework for the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030)

“…Diversity among work pathways has been explored through micro-transitions between employment to unemployment (Hägglund and Bächmann 2017 ), full time and part time work (Van Winkle and Fasang 2017 ) and sequential precarious employment (Raymo et al 2011 ). Analyses across life courses of work with specific characteristics such as being precarious (Ní Léime and Street 2019 ) or physically demanding (Nicholas et al 2020 ) have illustrated how work characteristics can have a cumulative effect on later life outcomes of poverty and illness/disability.…”

“…The next step is to map transitions and trajectories across the full span of a work career. Ní Léime and Street ( 2019 ) argue that there are two components needing further development. The first is the span of a working life.…”

Lived experiences of the adjustment of older employees to re-employment in Singapore: A Bourdieusian perspective

“…In the research area of extended working life, extant empirical research (e.g. Edge et al, 2020; Gyllensten et al, 2019; Ní Léime and Street, 2019) has been more concerned with motivators (e.g. job meaningfulness, competence upgrading), facilitators (e.g.…”

“…Additionally, greater aggression, lower self-control, poorer decision making and impaired attention capacity may arise from coping with stereotype-related stress (Inzlicht and Kang, 2010). Some adaptive challenges confronting older employees stem from age-specific changes in physical and cognitive functioning (Hansson et al, 2001;Ní Léime and Street, 2019). For example, such changes may result in lowered toleration of shift work and less productive performance (Blok and de Looze, 2011), and increased experience of physical, emotional and cognitive demands from work (Barnes-Farrell, 2005).…”

Why older rural women in Ireland want to work: it's not all about the money

“…The world's population is ageing (Eurostat, 2019), particularly so in rural areas (Skinner et al ., 2021), of which women comprise a high proportion. Furthermore, there are ever-increasing numbers of women participating in European Union labour markets (European Union, 2017), especially at mid-life (Ní Léime and Ogg, 2019), and this is also the case in Ireland where mid-life women are working beyond the traditional base of 65 years in order to reach a revised pension age of 66, and ultimately, 68 years in 2028 (Ní Léime and Street, 2019).…”