From Ageism to Age Equality: Addressing the Challenges ...

Table 14: Personal preferences for retirement age18-29 30-49 50-59 60-64 Allyears years years yearsPrefer to retire early 34% 34% 24% 10% 31%Prefer to work beyond current 17% 21% 26% 27% 21%retirement agePrefer to retire at current 16% 17% 20% 28% 18%retirement ageIt depends 27% 20% 12% 16% 21%Already retired – – 5% 13% 2%Not working for other reasons 3% 6% 12% 7% 6%Don’t know 3% 2% 1% – 2%26The preference for early retirement varied according to education and income. Twenty three per centof those whose highest level of education was Junior Certificate or below expressed a preference forearly retirement, 34 per cent of those whose highest level of education was Leaving Certificateexpressed this view as did 45 per cent of respondents with a university degree. Not surprisingly, asimilar pattern emerged in relation to income: 11 per cent of those with a household income of€28,000 or less expressed a preference for early retirement compared to 22 per cent of those withan income from €28,100 to €55,000 and 39 per cent of those with an income above this level.Gradual RetirementTable 15 demonstrates that the vast majority of respondents across all age groups have a preferencefor some part-time work around retirement age, with 37 per cent expressing a preference for parttimework before and after the State retirement age. Only 12 per cent of respondents did notexpress a preference for any part-time work around retirement age.Conference Proceedings