Der Übergang in den Ruhestand - Wege, Einflussfaktoren und

Summary Der Übergang in den Ruhestand
Early retirement
24.6 % of the 1,960 persons who had reached legal retirement age chose early retirement.
Results show that 30.8 % were forced to retire early, whereas 69.2 % opted freely for this
solution. Both voluntary and enforced early retirement is usually linked to health problems.
The second most often quoted reason is company restructuring.
A bivariant and multivariant analysis of early retirement factors shows that gender is an important
element in early retirement decisions. All participants considered, women seem to
have four times less of a chance of early retirement than men.
For men the decision to retire early is best explained by sociodemographic and socioprofessional
factors. An active approach to leisure activities (at time of survey), a diminishing
household between 60 and retirement age, bad health or drawing an invalidity (IV) pension
at age 60, are the factors that most strongly increase the likelihood of early retirement
for men. Other factors are: last place of employment in a large company, and/or work in
transport, communications or education.
For women economic factors, i.e. occupational pension plan (2nd pillar) retirement assets
seem to best explain retirement age. The higher this amount, the greater the likelihood of
early retirement for women.
On average early retirement is taken 3.04 years before the legal age, although relevant profiles
differ for women and men. The most common value for women is 2 years prior to legal
retirement age, corresponding to a retirement age of 60 for most of the birth cohorts studied.
For men the highest distribution value is 3 years, i.e. retirement at 62.
Partial retirement
Only 1.4% of participants past retirement age chose the partial retirement solution; most of
these explained their decision by the wish to draw out the retirement process. Health
problems making full time work impossible were invoked by almost 20%, whereas 8.5%
retired to make room for the young.
“Regular” retirement
45.1% of retired survey participants worked until at least legal retirement age, regardless of
whether they continued working or not afterwards. A gradual reduction of working time before
legal retirement age was observed in 8.3% of the cases.
Retirement prior to legal retirement age
Most persons who stop working before reaching legal retirement age are women who gave
up their jobs while young to take care of household and children. Unemployment and health
problems play no significant role in this pathway.
Working after legal retirement age
The proportion of pensioners who continue working after reaching legal retirement age is
over 16%, with somewhat more men than women. The study shows that the decision to
work after reaching legal retirement age is at least partly linked to lower income status. Almost
all variables in the model apply to persons in lower income brackets (no executive
function, work in a small company, in the agricultural or forestry sector, insufficient 2 nd pillar
retirement assets). One may suppose that work after legal retirement age is often motivated
by economic reasons, a supposition confirmed explicitly by 29.7% of persons working
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