Working Hours Flexibility and Timing of Retirement: Findings from Europe

ABSTRACT

This study investigates how flexibility in working hours affects retirement timing. It tests the assumption that decreasing weekly working hours delays retirement and extends working life. Using data from four waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), we analyze whether a shift from full-time to part-time work delays retirement. Results show that older workers who reduce their working hours retire earlier than those who stay in full-time employment. The effect is stronger in Central and Eastern Europe than in Scandinavian countries. No interaction effects for gender and work strain are found. We conclude that part-time work at the end of the career, as a means to extend working life, should be reevaluated.

KEYWORDS:

• Part-time work
• retirement
• SHARE
• ELSA

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Tax progressivity (year 2000): OECD Tax Database (income tax level [earners 167% of average/100% of average wage) http://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?DataSetCode=TABLE_I1.

² Net replacement rate of the average male earner (OECD Pensions at a Glance 2005). OECD (2005), OECD Pensions at a Glance 2005: Public Policies across OECD Countries, OECD Publishing, Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/pension_glance-2005-en.

³ Share of part-time workers amongst the employed (Quartal 2, 2000): Eurostat http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/lfs/data/database.

⁴ Based on OECD data for the year 2000 (10 countries, male and female workers 55–64) https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=INVPT_I.

⁵ Based on data from the third wave of the European Social Survey. For detailed information see Jansen (2018).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Cross-Council Programme (LLHW). The LLHW Funding Partners for this award are the Economic and Social Research Council and the Medical Research Council (grant number ES/L002884/1).