Working Beyond age 65 in Ireland

Why do men extend their employment beyond pensionable age more often than women? a cohort study

Men extend their employment beyond pensionable age more often than women, but the factors that contribute to this sex difference are unknown. This study aimed to examine sex differences in extending employment and the contribution of sociodemographic, work- and health-related factors to these differences. Participants of this prospective cohort study were 4,263 public sector employees from Finland who reached their individual pensionable date between 2014 and 2019 and responded to a survey on work- and non-work-related issues before that date. Extended employment was defined as continuing working for over six months beyond the individual pensionable date. We used mediation analysis to examine the contribution of explanatory factors to the association between sex and extended employment. Of the participants, 29% extended employment beyond the pensionable date. Men had a 1.29-fold (95% confidence interval 1.11–1.49) higher probability of extending employment compared with women. Men had a higher prevalence of factors that increase the likelihood of extended employment than women (such as spouse working full-time, no part-time retirement, low job strain, high work time control, and lack of pain) and this mediated the association of sex with extended employment by up to 83%. In conclusion, men were more likely to extend their employment beyond pensionable age than women. This difference was largely explained by men being more likely to have a full-time working spouse, low job strain, high work time control, no pain, and not being on part-time retirement.

Approaching Retirement After a Working Life in Poverty

This paper uses a life course perspective to explore and understand how an individual’s experiences over their lifetime contribute to the formation of a growing consciousness about their impending retirement. The fieldwork took place in 2016 and was part of a wider mixed methods study about retirement in the UK, which used data from the 1958 birth cohort study (also known as the National Child Development Study). The paper focuses on the qualitative dimension of the study and uses in-depth case studies of four people approaching 60 to consider, in particular, the effects of health, financial resources and employment history on their views on retiring, including the anticipated timing of their exit from the labour market. All four were purposively chosen because they had experienced low pay or poverty during their lifetime and were employed in relatively low paid jobs. State Pension Ages (SPAs) are on the rise in many countries, including the UK, and the authors maintain that it is important to study the working poor, who, even though are more likely to continue working until SPA, are more prone to suffer from poor health, and less likely to be able to put savings aside for their retirement.