The transi+on to re+rement: The life course and the life course perspec+ve evolving

Transcription

1 1 The transi+on to re+rement: The life course and the life course perspec+ve evolving Session on Work- Re+rement Transi+ons, sponsored by the Aging and Paid Work Thema+c CommiBee, Popula+on Change and Lifecourse Strategic Knowledge Cluster Victor W. Marshall, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus, Department of Sociology The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Dalla Lana School of Public Health, The University of Toronto October 17, 2014 Adapta+on of address to the Research Group, Paid work beyond re.rement age in Germany and the UK, based at the Centre for Social Policy Research, University of Bremen

2 2 The life Course Perspec+ve: Origins Leonard Cain, Mar+n Kohli and the life course as a social ins+tu+on Tri- par+te system of labor 1. Prework (Prepara+on for work) 2. Work (Ac+vity) 3. Re+rement Kohli & Rein (1991): By the 1960s the modern tripar++on of the life course had been firmly established. Old age had become synonymous with the period of re+rement: a life phase structurally set apart from ac+ve work life.

3 3 THE STATE AND THE LIFE COURSE Karl Ulrich Mayer, Mar+n Cooke the state defines rules for transi+ons into and out of educa+on, the rela+onship between educa+on and work, work and re+rement, entry and exit from marriage, etc. In doing so the state acts as gatekeeper and sorter (Mayer 1986, p. 167) Public policies directly and indirectly shape and reshape career paberns over the en+re working life course (Cooke 2006).

4 4 John Myles and Debra Street The modern welfare state and life the life course The modern welfare state is premised on a par+cular model of the en.re economic life course, not simply the period of life aher 65 that we now call old age. The model had lible to do with the ac+ons or desires of the elderly and a great deal to do with the strategies of employers, workers and governments for managing the distribu+on of risk over the economic life course (Myles and Street 1995: 354).

5 % In US Labor Force by Age and Year 5

6 Sara Rix (AARP) quoted recently in the Huffington Post. 6 For 2011, the par+cipa+on rate for 65 and older was 17.9% compared with 10.8% in For 75 and older, the rate jumped from 4.3% in 90 to 7.5% in Those are whopping increases. I see these rates con3nuing to increase as we move into the future. (recent quote, Huffington Post) Although both the median age of the work force and the propor+on of workers who are old will rise, these measures of aging point to a work force that is all else being equal no older in 2006 that it was forty years earlier. Indeed, the propor+on of the workforce that is aged 55 and above will actually be lower in 2006 than it was in 1966

7 7 Other sources of varia+on in labor force history Many never had full- +me career (Cahiill, Giandrea & Quinn 2012) Some simultaneously waged and self- employed (Zissimopoulos & Karoly 2007) Full +me to part +me to exit; wage and salary to self- employment (ibid.) Response to job loss, (Johnson & Park 2013) shrunken savings, decline in home equity (Butrica et al., 2010)

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9 Older Workers Part-Time and Full-Time Employment Part-time Full-time Prepared by the UNC Institute on Aging 9

10 10 Role of corpora+ons in shaping careers: The Issues of an Aging Workforce Study (IAW) (Marshall & Marshall 1999, 2003) Fordist model retained: Slater Steel and Sun Life Restructuring in a declining industry: Garment Manufacturing Downsizing at Bell Canada: We don t want to be thought of as Mother Bell any more. Importance of bridge jobs as pathway to retirement Changing the culture at Prudential: forbade its human resources department to use the word career NOVA: Life is a highway (and you re in the driver s seat) Career a property of the individual rather than a structure of the firm

11 11 WANE: Workforce Aging in the New Economy (Julie McMullin, PI) Platman: Such firms face formidable pressures in order to deliver profitable services and products. There are limits to how much flexibility and security a firm can offer in a climate of fluctua+ng demand, fierce cost compe++on and uncertain technological progression.. Developing systems or procedures which were designed to retain staff for longer, and beyond re+rement age, was well down the list of priori+es if the business was to survive.. (Platman 2009: 65) McMullin & Marshall (Eds.) Aging and Working in the New Economy: Changing Career Structures in Small IT Firms. Cheltenham; Edward Elgar

12 12 Recommenda+ons for future research Address re+rement transi+on from both ins+tu+onal and social psychological approaches Develop theory to link micro and macro phenomena Use and mix qualita+ve and quan+ta+ve methods Recognize importance of corporate policy as well as state policy Understand complexity of the working life course goes well beyond the tripar+te model

13 Thanks for your aben+on You can contact me at: 13 This presenta+on is based on a book chapter: Victor W. Marshall (forthcoming). The transi+on to re+rement: The influence of globaliza+on, public policy and company policies on re+rement transi+ons. In Simone Sherger (Ed.), Compara.ve Perspec.ves on Work Beyond Re.rement Age. Cases, Contexts, Consequences. Basingstoke: Palgrave Due to +me constraints, the presenta+on convers only some of the material from the book chapter.

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15 15 END OF PRESENTATION SLIDES. Remaining slides in this deck deal with aspects of the same topic.

16 16 The emerging model of the life course pre career birth job educa+on career job re+rement event death Bridge jobs Educa+on Part- +me jobs

17 Government and the Transi+on to Re+rement in North America Social Security legisla+on influences the culture of when re+rement is appropriate USA Social Security age 65 moved to age 67 Medicare at age 65 Age Discrimina+on in Employment legisla+on 17 Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security at age 65 Crea+ng an historically grounded culture that 65 is standard age for re+rement, against which re+rements judged, early, on +me or delayed

18 18 Ins+tu+onal factors associated with changes in work to re+rement paberns: The corporate level Employers recrui+ng and employment policies are important. Walter Heinz, University of Bremen The Fordist life course (post WW II) Secure employment over the life course, followed by secure re+rement (Quadagno et al., 2001, 2003) Security declining from the 1980s: from defined benefit to defined contribu+on plans, changes in manufacturing sector, globaliza+on and offshoring

19 19 The new deal at work Peter Cappelli managers seek to lower the expecta+ons of employees by limi+ng the employer s obliga+ons on job security and career development the dreaded employability doctrine that pushes responsibility for careers onto employees while assuming that most other aspects of the rela+onship, including high levels of employee performance, will con+nue. (Cappelli 1999:1).

20 20 Ansgar Weymann (2003) Call for macro- micro approach Methods: What is insufficiently present or some+mes completely missing in life- course, cohort, and biographical research is the direct observa+on, descrip+on and theore+cal analysis of the ins+tu+ons and social structure of one or more socie+es. (p. 168).

21 Reemployment Experiences of Older Workers Age group Reemployment rate % % % % *Source: GAO, 2007 Older workers less likely to get another job It takes them longer to get another job Workers under 50 are 42% more likely to get an interview than those 50+ (Lahey, 2005) Prepared by the UNC Institute on Aging 21

22 Consequences in relation to the economic downturn n Over the last 2 decades companies have shifted from traditional pensions to 401(k) s, transferring retirement costs from companies to employees. (Greenhouse, 2008) n For too many Americans, 401(k) plans have become little more than a high stakes crapshoot. (George Miller, Chair, House Education and Labor Committee, Feb. 2009) n Workers have lost $2 trillion in 401(k) s in the last 15 months. (Congressional Budget Office, 2009) n Just social security and 401(k) plans will not give retirees enough money. (Alicia Munnell, Center for Retirement Research, Boston College, 2009) Prepared by the UNC Institute on Aging 22

23 THE STATE AND THE STUCTURE OF THE LIFE COURSE the state legalizes, defines and standardizes most points of entry and exit; into and out of employment, marital status, into and out of sickness and disability, into and out of educa+on. In doing so, the state turns these transi+ons into strongly demarcated public events and acts as gatekeeper and sorter (Mayer, 1986: 167). Public policies directly and indirectly shape and reshape career paberns over the en+re working life course (Cooke 2006). 23

24 Changes in Retirement Benefits

25 Projected Graying of the Workforce Prepared by the UNC Institute on Aging 25

26 Reemployment Consequences for older workers n Greater earning losses than younger workers n Dislocated workers with 20 years of experience find jobs paying between 20-40% less than their previous job n Fewer employment opportunities in a narrower range of industries and occupations than younger workers(heidkamp and Van Horn, 2008) n Older men, especially those laid off in male dominated manufacturing industries, are disproportionately represented in the long-term unemployed (lasting more that 6 months) Prepared by the UNC Institute on Aging 26

27 27 Major contribu+ons of Bremen group: Status Passages and Risk in the Life Course Walter Heinz & Helga Krueger Structure in an interpre+ve perspec+ve (the macro side) Structural changes create risk Risk society requires ac+on The challenge of linking micro and macro

28 28 Recognizing Complexity The life course has to do with much more than work Work, family, gender, health, crime Public or social policy and corporate policy Need to examine intersec+on and mutual causa+on Need to recognize agency and chance as intrinsic to life course trajectory determina+on Need for more qualita+ve and mixed- methods research

29 Employment Trends: Ages Labor Force Participation Rates, Percent Sources of data: Patrick Purcell, Older Workers: Employment and Retirement Trends, CRS Report for Congress, September 14, 2005; U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States, Males Females 29

30 Employment Trends: Ages Labor Force Participation Rates, Percent Sources of data: Patrick Purcell, Older Workers: Employment and Retirement Trends, CRS Report for Congress, September 14, 2005; U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States, Males Females 30

31 Employment Trends: Ages 65+ Labor Force Participation Rates, Percent Males Females Sources of data: Patrick Purcell, Older Workers: Employment and Retirement Trends, CRS Report for Congress, September 14, 2005; U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States,

32 Fig 1: Percentages of people between the ages of 55 and 64 participating in the European workforce, from 1992 to 2011 (Eurostat, 2012). 32

33 Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. 33

34 34 Older Workers Part-time and Fulltime Employment n Between 1990 and 1995 increase in part-time work and decline in full time work n Between 1995 and 2007 older workers on full-time schedules doubled, while part-time workers increased only 19% n By % of older workers full time; trend likely to continue (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008) n But 2010 census: 46.2% worked 40 or more hours (AARP 2013)

35 Globaliza+on increases at same +me Fordism decreases 35 refers to the increasing integra+on of economies around the world, par+cularly through trade and financial flows. The term some+mes also refers to the movement of people (labor) and knowledge (technology) across interna+onal borders (IMF 2000). The new globaliza.on class structure (Standing 2008): with growing numbers of people detaching themselves, or being detached, from na+onal regulatory and protec+ve systems, because they engage in casual or informal labor.

36 36 Globaliza+on and the changing class structure (Standing 2008) Globaliza+on increases as Fordism contracts 1. Elite 2. Proficiens (consultants and short- term contracts) 3. Salariat (civil service, corpora+ons, bureaucracies (least subject to casualiza+on) 4. Core workers (formerly know as the working class full +me, regular, typically unionized jobs 5. Flexiworkers (labour insecurity in all forms) 6. Unemployed 7. Detached (cut off from mainstream social benefits)

37 37 There is more to diversity than changes in labor force par+cipa+on by age Diversity in +ming, hours worked while in re+rement, gender differences Age 65 is no longer so strongly ins+tu+onalized as marker for the transi+on to re+rement Other paberns in the pathways to be discussed A cause of this diversity is a shih from public policies and prac+ces suppor+ng early withdrawal to one suppor+ng later withdrawal.

38 38 Angela O Rand (2011) Global aging, individualiza+on of risk, and the life course 1) Interven+on in demography of the life course e.g. pronatalist policies, selec+ve immigra+on of the young, age- specific ra+oning of health care; 2) abempts to raise the re+rement age, change benefit formulas and making benefits fully taxable; 3) shih of the locus of responsibility for protec+ng the life course away from public sector to individual and family (p. 695).

39 39 Tripar+te too simplis+c (Wilensky, 1960,1961); historically specific (Kohli 1985,1986, 2007) Wilensky (1961) studies in this area leave no doubt that modern adult life imposes frequent shihs between jobs, occupa+ons, employers, and workplaces; but they tell us lible of the consequences for person and social structure Kohli (2007 With hindsight it is easy to see that the ins+tu+onalized life course that I discerned as the provisional endpoint of moderniza+on corresponded to a rather specific historical period the 1960s when many of its features culminated in what is now ohen termed the Fordist model of social structure and the life course. In macrosociological terms, this model was based on rapid and seemingly stable economic growth, low unemployment, and expansion of the welfare state.

40 40 A shih in policy direc+on (Penner et al., 2002:6) Many of the economic and ins+tu+onal barriers to working longer evolved when there was reason to make room for the giant cohorts of baby boomers working their way up the career ladder. Ohen, pressures to downsize were much stronger than pressures to retain valuable human capital. Early re+rement provided a rela+vely painless way to shed workers. It was also a +me when mandatory re+rement was legal, life expectancy was shorter, health at any age was more fragile, and many more jobs were physically demanding.

41 Life course, the state and public policy: Guillemard, Schmahl, Leisering, Leibfried, Mayer 41