Comparing Support and Readiness for Work Beyond Retirement Age in European Countries

Against the background of foreseeable ageing of the population as a whole and national labour forces in particular, many governments in Europe have started to introduce a bundle of policies to stimulate longer working lives, often summarised under the term 'active ageing'. Among these measures, reforms of pension systems and measures aiming to increase incentives of work up to or even beyond retirement age have played a major role. This paper seeks to explore in how far such reforms have actually been able to generate sufficient public approval, and how this support varies both inter- as well as intra-nationally. Considering both the 'abstract' approval for work beyond retirement age as well as the 'concrete' individual readiness to do so, the paper distinguishes three 'grades' of support: (i) those supporting continued work both at the abstract and the concrete level, (ii) those generally in favour of work beyond retirement but not considering this an individual option and (iii) those uniformly rejecting it. In a first step, the paper descriptively explores cross-national differences in the distribution of these three types across European countries and their possible institutional determinants. Using regression analysis, the paper subsequently explores which individual-level factors determine the assignment to any of these three groups and whether the influence of such micro-level determinants differs across countries. Empirically, the paper draws back to data from the Special Eurobarometer study 76.2, including a specific module on 'Active Ageing', fielded in late-2011.

The results of the analyses reveal a number of notable findings. There is a surprisingly widespread consensus in supporting work beyond retirement in a large number of European states. If not accepted at the individual level , there at least is an abstract approval of the need of post-retirement work in the majority of EU member states. Notably, support is highest not in countries with currently low standard retirement ages but in those where retirement ages are already among the highest (i.e. in a number of Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon countries). Particularly in these countries, structural conditions (e.g.labour market policies and age-friendly measures) provide older workers with favourable opportunities to work longer. The high relevance of favourable labour market conditions is mirrored at the individual level where results indicate that employees who perceive their long-term employment opportunities to be favourable indeed are more ready to prolong their working life. From a political angle, these findings suggest that previous active ageing policies that had one-sidedly focused on changing retirement regulations likely will not be sufficient to raise readiness for continued employment in the long run. Instead, these policies will need to be backed up by ‘employability measures’ that support older workers to work longer. Employees may be ready to work up to or beyond higher retirement ages, if such opportunities exist, while the lack of employability options will constrain the readiness to continue working even if retirement ages are low.