Work and Family Characteristics as Predictors of Early Retirement in Married Men and Women

Abstract

This study presents an integrative model of early retirement using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. The model extends prior work by incorporating work-family conflict to capture the interaction between the work and family domains and by assuming proximal and distal predictors of early retirement. More precisely, the model suggests that family and job demands and resources predict family-to-work and work-to-family conflict, respectively. All of these factors are presumed to have only indirect effects on retirement timing via the intervening effect of quality of life measures, that is, marital satisfaction, job satisfaction and health. The authors assume that these three factors constitute predictors of early retirement in addition to socioeconomic status and the availability of a pension plan and health insurance. The model was tested with structural equation modeling techniques, and the results were supportive. Therefore, the proposed model offers a general framework for the integration of previous research findings.Keywords early retirement; demands and resources; work-family conflict; quality of life Since its implementation in the early 20 th century, the "normal retirement age," that is, the age at which full social security or retirement benefits are available for individuals, has steadily declined and early retirement schemes have been launched (Graebner 1980). Especially during periods of high unemployment (e.g. the 1970s and 1980s), stimulating early exits from the labor force was a commonly used political tool to secure the succession of younger employees and to keep older workers out of unemployment statistics (Kohli 1985). More recently, changing demographics such as longer life expectancy and decreasing fertility rates have rendered policies promoting early withdrawal from the labor force Corresponding author's address: Bettina Kubicek, Department of Economic Psychology, Educational Psychology and Evaluation, University of Vienna, Universitaetsstrasse 7, A-1010 Vienna, Austria; bettina.kubicek@univie.ac.at. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptRes Aging. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 March 21. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript increasingly problematic (van Dalen and Henkens 2002), as they impose growing fiscal pressure on public pension systems (Fullerton and Toossi 2001). As a consequence, many industrialized countries have launched policies to promote extended labor force participation (Frostin 1999). For example, in the United States, the age of eligibility for full social security retirement benefits has begun to increase gradually from 65 to 67, and the benefits available from the age of 62, the current minimum age for early retirement, have been reduced (National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine 2004).The success of such political endeavors to encourage delayed retirement is at least partially contingent on the workers' willingness and ability to extend their working lives. Apart from analyzing the effects of str...

The Employer’s Perspective on Retirement

“…Another reason why employers might be reluctant to applying wage declines at a prescribed age is the probability that this would be branded as a violation of age discrimination laws (Hatcher 2003) In many countries in least in Europe, the most widely implemented measures tend to be the ones that "spare" the older workers such as additional leave, increased holiday entitlements, workload reductions, age limits for working overtime of irregular work. These policies are based on insights that stressful working conditions, heavy workloads, and physical demands promote early retirement (Hayward 1986;Henkens and Tazelaar 1997;Kubicek, Korunka, Hoonakker, and Raymo 2010). 2 The limited support for retention of older workers put question marks behind the notion that employers cannot afford to lose their current generations of highly skilled olderaged employees, who are seen as the repositories of institutional intelligence.…”

The ageing shift worker: a prospective cohort study on need for recovery, disability, and retirement intentions

“…Also, retirement intentions will be a relevant outcome to investigate among shift workers, as a disruption of the social life could be associated with the decision to retire early, eg, work-to-family conflict can encourage workers to choose early retirement (21).…”

Factors Affecting Prolonged Working Life for the Older Workforce: the Swedish Case

“…Previous research has found several such factors to be of importance for the retirement process (van den Berg et al, 2008). In general, dissatisfying jobs and jobs with high physical and psychological demands are believed to push employees into retirement, while creative and complex jobs seem to retain workers in employment (Elovainio et al, 2005;Gobeski & Beehr, 2009;Hayward et al, 1989;Kubicek et al, 2010;Lin, 2001;Szubert & Sobala, 2005;Wang, 2007).…”

“…Furthermore, job resources are also believed to have a motivational effect independent of job demands and related to organizational outcomes. However, only a few studies have used the JD-R model to study retirement decisions (Demerouti & Bakker, 2011;Kubicek et al, 2010). Schreurs et al (2010) noted that job demands and job resources were related to work enjoyment, which is associated with decisions about whether to retire early.…”

“…Therefore, we expect low job satisfaction to be related to a higher risk for some kind of transition, and in older age, the most probable transition is out of the labor force. In research focused on retirement behavior, Kubicek et al (2010) found that job satisfaction had a small but significant negative effect on the risk of actual retirement.…”