Retirement Expectations in Germany—Towards Rising Social Inequality?
In the last 20 years, German policy makers have reformed the pension system and the labor market with the aim of prolonging working life. As a consequence, older workers’ employment rate and average retirement age rose. In addition to the actual behavior of today’s retiree cohort...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2018-07-01
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| Series: | Societies |
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| Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/3/50 |
| _version_ | 1818147784461647872 |
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| author | Moritz Hess |
| author_facet | Moritz Hess |
| author_sort | Moritz Hess |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In the last 20 years, German policy makers have reformed the pension system and the labor market with the aim of prolonging working life. As a consequence, older workers’ employment rate and average retirement age rose. In addition to the actual behavior of today’s retiree cohorts, the reforms also influence the expected retirement age of future pensioners, the development of which will be investigated in this paper, arguing that they have adapted to the reforms and increased their expected retirement age. The analyses are based on data from the SOEP and DEAS survey and results show an increase of the expected retirement age. However, while high-skilled workers both want and expect to retire late, low-skilled workers prefer to retire early but expect that they have to work longer in order to ensure a reasonable pension. This finding hints at rising social inequality in the transition from work to retirement. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T12:40:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c58209b7795543ccb6b88e6f2a490703 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2075-4698 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T12:40:45Z |
| publishDate | 2018-07-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Societies |
| spelling | doaj.art-c58209b7795543ccb6b88e6f2a4907032022-12-22T01:07:00ZengMDPI AGSocieties2075-46982018-07-01835010.3390/soc8030050soc8030050Retirement Expectations in Germany—Towards Rising Social Inequality?Moritz Hess0Institute of Gerontology, Technical University Dortmund, 44339 Dortmund, GermanyIn the last 20 years, German policy makers have reformed the pension system and the labor market with the aim of prolonging working life. As a consequence, older workers’ employment rate and average retirement age rose. In addition to the actual behavior of today’s retiree cohorts, the reforms also influence the expected retirement age of future pensioners, the development of which will be investigated in this paper, arguing that they have adapted to the reforms and increased their expected retirement age. The analyses are based on data from the SOEP and DEAS survey and results show an increase of the expected retirement age. However, while high-skilled workers both want and expect to retire late, low-skilled workers prefer to retire early but expect that they have to work longer in order to ensure a reasonable pension. This finding hints at rising social inequality in the transition from work to retirement.http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/3/50retirementGermanysocial inequalityexpected retirement ageageingpension policySOEPDEAS |
| spellingShingle | Moritz Hess Retirement Expectations in Germany—Towards Rising Social Inequality? Societies retirement Germany social inequality expected retirement age ageing pension policy SOEP DEAS |
| title | Retirement Expectations in Germany—Towards Rising Social Inequality? |
| title_full | Retirement Expectations in Germany—Towards Rising Social Inequality? |
| title_fullStr | Retirement Expectations in Germany—Towards Rising Social Inequality? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Retirement Expectations in Germany—Towards Rising Social Inequality? |
| title_short | Retirement Expectations in Germany—Towards Rising Social Inequality? |
| title_sort | retirement expectations in germany towards rising social inequality |
| topic | retirement Germany social inequality expected retirement age ageing pension policy SOEP DEAS |
| url | http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/3/50 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT moritzhess retirementexpectationsingermanytowardsrisingsocialinequality |