Additional Leave as the Determinant of Retirement Timing—Retaining Older Workers in Norway

Faced with a rapidly aging labor force, increasing the labor supply of older workers has become an important goal for European countries. Offering additional leave to older workers with the option of withdrawing a contractual pension (contractual early retirement pension AFP) has become a widespread retention measure in Norwegian companies. Thus far, no studies documenting the effects of individual retention measures on early retirement behavior have been published. The aim of this article is to examine whether offering additional leave impacts the relative risk of withdrawal of a contractual pension. The analysis uses a difference-in-differences approach and examines whether offering additional leave to counteract early retirement impacts the retirement decisions of 61- and 62-year-olds within the next two years of their employment, controlling for a range of different individual and company characteristics. This is achieved by comparing changes and differences in the individual relative risk of retiring early on the contractual pension (AFP scheme) in the period 2001–2010 among older workers in companies with and without the retention measure. The analysis shows an overall average increase in the relative risk of a 61- or 62-year-old worker retiring on the contractual pension between 2001 and 2010; however, among older workers employed in companies offering additional leave there has been a decrease in the relative risk. The effect of additional leave is evident both before and after controlling for the selected individual and company characteristics. Thus, the analysis shows that offering additional leave as a retention measure reduces the individual relative risk of withdrawing a contractual pension (AFP) in the next two years of employment among older workers between the age of 61 and 62 years

Effects of Companies’ Initiatives to Reduce Early Retirement Among Older Workers

Although active ageing policy and practice vary between countries, we believe that knowledge about the effects of Norwegian companies’ initiatives to delay early retirement is of interest for all countries striving to increase the employment rates of older workers. Since the agreement on a more inclusive working life (IW agreement) was signed in 2001, the Norwegian government and social partners have encouraged companies to develop a more senior-friendly policy and implement special measures to retain older workers. In this article, we evaluate the effects of such measures. Our research question is, have preventive measures offered by companies to employees aged 62 years and older contributed to reduced rates of early retirement? We use a ‘difference-in-differences’ approach and examine whether measures at the company level to counteract early retirement actually affect older employees’ retirement decisions, controlling for different individual and enterprise factors. This is done by comparing changes and differences in the individual likelihood of early retirement on the contractual pension (AFP scheme) and disability pension in the period 2002–2007 among employees 62 years of age in businesses with and without the corresponding preventive measures/instruments. The analyses show that the likelihood that a 62-year-old worker will retire on the AFP scheme has increased from 2002 to 2007. This applies equally to 62-year-old employees in enterprises that have enacted special measures to retain older workers as well as 62-year-olds in enterprises that have not enacted any such measures. On the other hand, the likelihood that a 62-year-old worker will retire because of disability decreased from 2002 to 2007, among employees in both the intervention enterprises and the control enterprises. However, when controlling for other relevant characteristics of individuals and enterprises, the analysis indicates that the measures as such have had no effect on the likelihood of 62-year-olds retiring

The Effect of Retaining Bonuses on Delaying Early Retirement – Financial Incentives Revisited

In this paper, we analyze the effect of the retaining bonus on early retirement behavior using a unique dataset consisting of a Norwegian employer survey from 2010 combined with register data on all older employees in the period 2000–2010. The retaining bonus is one of the most common retention measures offered by Norwegian companies to prevent their older workers from retiring early. The most common arrangement is a lump sum of between 10,000 and 25,000 Norwegian Kroner (between 1100 and 2600 Euros), which was less than the mean monthly pay before tax in Norway in 2010. In spite of this modest sum, our analysis shows that retaining bonuses of 20,000 NOK or more do reduce the probability of 61-year-olds retiring in the next two years of employmen

Income security in Nordic welfare states for men and women who died when aged 55–69 years old

Income security when health impairment or other social risks occur is a major objective of welfare states. This comparative study uses register data from four Nordic welfare states for examining equivalized disposable income during the last 12 years alive among men and women who died when aged 55–69 years old. The analysed outcome indicates the aggregate result of a varied set of income maintenance mechanisms. Median income increased in the Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish samples, but decreased somewhat in Denmark, probably due to relatively frequent transitions to retirement and larger income drops after retirement than in the other Nordic countries. Analyses of comparison samples weighted by propensity scores indicated a better income development among those who lived beyond the observation period than among those who died. The higher educated had a more favourable income development during the years prior to death than those with low education.Peer reviewe

Changes in life expectancy and lifespan variability by income quartiles in four Nordic countries : a study based on nationwide register data

Objectives Levels, trends or changes in socioeconomic mortality differentials are typically described in terms of means, for example, life expectancies, but studies have suggested that there also are systematic social disparities in the dispersion around those means, in other words there are inequalities in lifespan variation. This study investigates changes in income inequalities in mean and distributional measures of mortality in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden over two decades. Design Nationwide register-based study. Setting The Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish populations aged 30 years or over in 1997 and 2017. Main outcome measures Income-specific changes in life expectancy, lifespan variation and the contribution of 'early' and 'late' deaths to increasing life expectancy. Results Increases in life expectancy has taken place in all four countries, but there are systematic differences across income groups. In general, the largest gains in life expectancy were observed in Denmark, and the smallest increase among low-income women in Sweden and Norway. Overall, life expectancy increased and lifespan variation decreased with increasing income level. These differences grew larger over time. In all countries, a marked postponement of early deaths led to a compression of mortality in the top three income quartiles for both genders. This did not occur for the lowest income quartile. Conclusion Increasing life expectancy is typically accompanied by postponement of early deaths and reduction of lifespan inequality in the higher-income groups. However, Nordic welfare societies are challenged by the fact that postponing premature deaths among people in the lowest-income groups is not taking place.Peer reviewe

The Parent Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ-Parent). Adaptation and validity testing with parents of children with epilepsy

Aims: The aim of this study was to adapt the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) in English and Norwegian for use with parents. Methods: The research group evaluated all HLQ items and, where relevant, modified them to refocus the attribution of care to that of a child by a parent. Five cognitive interviews with parents were undertaken to gain a detailed depiction of the meanings and processes they used to respond to the HLQ items. Assessment of the psychometric properties of the revised HLQ was undertaken using data from a cross-sectional survey of 254 parents of children with epilepsy. Analysis included internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results: Some 22 out of 44 items and the names of three domains were modified (e.g. attribution changed from ‘me’ to ‘my child’). Cognitive interviews indicated that parents interpreted the HLQ-Parent items in the way intended. All but three factor loadings were high to acceptable. All nine HLQ scales showed satisfactory to good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha 0.70 to 0.87). When fitting one-factor CFA models, correlated residuals were required for four scales to generate an acceptable fit. One scale, ‘8. Ability to find good health information’, required inclusion of two correlated residuals to generate an acceptable CFA model fit, indicating that further work on this scale is warranted. Conclusions: The results from both the adaptation process and the CFA analysis supported the relevance, understanding and theoretical structure of the instrument in a parental context

Hjemme, borte eller uavgjort? Kvalitet og effektivitet i pleie- og omsorgstjenestene

Hvordan organiserer norske kommuner sine pleie- og omsorgstjenester – og hvorfor? Er noen måter å organisere tjenestene på mer ressurseffektive enn andre? Hvilke kommuner produserer best kvalitet på tjenestene? Er god kvalitet kjennetegnet ved sykehjemsplass til alle som trenger det – eller til å hjelpe alle til å bli boende hjemme så lenge som mulig? Dette er noen av spørsmålene som drøftes i denne rapporten. Problemstillingene belyses ved hjelp av casestudier og registerdata. Ved hjelp av ulike analyseteknikker søker vi etter kommunetypologier – og deretter etter sammenhenger mellom typologier, effektivitet og kvalitet

Retaining Older Workers

Dissertation for the degree of philosophiae doctor (PhD), Department of Social Work, Child Welfare and Social Policy, Faculty of Social Sciences Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Autumn 2016 Utgivelsesdata Tittel: Retaining Older Workers Forfatter(e): Åsmund Hermansen Serie: HiOA avhandlinger Issn: 1893-0476 Nr: 2016 nr 9 Utgiver: HiOA Avdeling/fakultet: SAM Sider: 252 Pris: 335,– ISBN-print: 978-82-8364-032-

Retaining Older Workers

Reducing early retirement and prolonging employees’ working lives are goals that feature on social policy agendas across Europe. Active ageing has become the leading social policy response. Like many European countries, Norway has adopted a twofold active-ageing strategy consisting of ‘passive’ labour market policies and ‘active’ measures aimed at retaining older workers. The pension reform, implemented from January 1st 2011, represents the ‘passive’ part of Norway’s strategy, and early retirement is discouraged through introducing a pension system based on actuarial neutrality, tightening the link between contributions paid and benefits received, and calculating benefits according to life expectancy. The second part of the Norwegian strategy, emphasising the use of ‘active’ measures, was formulated in 2001 at the national level with the signing of the Tripartite Agreement on an Inclusive Working Life (the IWL agreement). With the introduction of the IWL agreement, the Norwegian government and the social partners called for employers to assume greater social responsibility for keeping people in employment and preventing older workers from opting for an early exit. The agreement signifies that Norway, like many European countries, acknowledges that a significant change in retirement behaviour will come from changing employers’ policies. The overarching research questions addressed in this thesis are: What are the preconditions for retaining older workers and what are the effects of measures offered by employers to alter early retirement? Five papers form the foundation of this PhD thesis. The ‘active’ part of Norway’s strategy is based on employers’ willingness to make use of retention measures and employers are key players in defining the opportunities for working longer. Thus, the individual company is the focal point for age management and adjustments to an ageing workforce, regardless of the actions of policymakers. The first paper in this thesis addresses the employer’s perspective and the results show that the most common retention measures offered by Norwegian employers are “additional leave”, “phased retirement” and “bonuses”. Furthermore, the results show the retention efforts to be significantly more extensive in 2010 than in 2005, measured as the number of retention measures offered. The retention efforts of Norwegian companies seem to be part of a holistic approach to active ageing, focusing on prevention and retention throughout employees’ working lives. Offering a number of different retention measures is more common among companies having initiated “measures to facilitate lifelong learning” and “measures to prevent health problems or reduced work capacity”. The financial incentives embedded in the contractual early retirement scheme seem also to have a significant impact on retention efforts. Addressing the employee’s perspective, the second paper in this thesis provides a descriptive picture of what characterises employees in the private sector who report to know their pension entitlements and what characterises those who report that they do not know. What employees know, or at least believe they know, concerning their own entitlements to early retirement benefits will be important for the choices they make regarding early retirement. I argue that if employees are imperfectly informed or are otherwise incapable of making informed choices, offering retention measures may not alter retirement behaviour. The results show that a large majority, and especially older employees, report to know their pension entitlements, which arguably reflects collection of information and that this retirement planning phase also involves the identification of possibilities offered by the employer, such as retention measures. The main body of this thesis, papers III, IV and V, links in a unique way the employer’s and employee’s perspective by investigating the effects of the most common retention measures as identified in the first paper on retirement behaviour. The analyses show that it is “additional leave” and “bonuses” which affect the early retirement behaviour of older employees and not measures involving an adaption of the work situation, in the form of phased retirement. Thus, the most commonly used measures that have an effect on early retirement behaviour are arguably purely external motivators, aimed at strengthening the desire to work and to a lesser extent enhancing the opportunities for continuing working or employee’s belief in their ability to do so, through adapting the work situation. Many older workers retire on the disability pension before they reach the age of eligibility set for being offered these measures. Thus, measures such as phased retirement might be too late for enhancing the opportunity structure of these workers. As an alternative or an addition to these retention measures, I argue for a stronger emphasis on the prevention of health problems and reduced work capacity from an earlier age. Measures aimed at preventing health problems and reduced work capacity will also arguably be more complementary to the strong financial incentives embedded in the pension reform

Hjemme eller institusjon? : en studie av norske kommuners prioriteringer mellom institusjonsbasert og hjemmebasert omsorg

Denne oppgavens formål er å bidra til en nyansering av Makt- og demokratiutredningens krisediagnose over det norske lokaldemokratiet. Videre er formålet å undersøke hvilken betydning politiske variabler har for prioriteringene innen den største kommunale sektoren, kommunal pleie- og omsorg. Denne oppgaven har dermed to formål som er gjensidig utfyllende. Oppgavens problemstilling lyder: Hvilken betydning har politiske variabler for norske kommuners prioriteringer mellom institusjonsbasert og hjemmebasert omsorg? Spiller politiske variabler i det hele tatt noen rolle når det kommer til utgiftsvedtakene, eller er disse vedtakene kun et resultat av hvordan problemer, behov og økonomiske muligheter fordeler seg mellom kommunene? Slik det fremkommer i oppgaven er de politiske variablenes betydning for kommunale prioriteringer et forskningsfelt med lange tradisjoner. Slik sett er ikke forskningsspørsmålet som stilles i denne oppgaven av nyvunnet karakter. I all hovedsak har disse studiene funnet at de politiske variablene er av liten eller ingen betydning for kommunale prioriteringer. Det at kommunene er pålagt en rekke oppgaver og til dels opptrer som et forvaltningsorgan er et velkjent resonnement som tas frem for å forklare disse funnene. Imidlertid argumenteres det i denne oppgaven for at en rekke av disse tidligere studiene ikke har tatt høyde for kommuneinstitusjonens tosidige karakter, som både et forvaltningsorgan og et politisk beslutningsnivå. Dermed har de heller ikke fått frem betydningen av de politiske variablene. Denne oppgaven operasjonaliserer den avhengige variabelen på en ny måte, slik at det tas høyde for kommuneinstitusjonenes tosidige karakter. Oppgavens analyse viser at den politiske sammensetningen i kommunestyret og partifragmentering vil kunne være av betydning for vektleggingen av de sosioøkonomiske variablene og dermed prioriteringen mellom institusjonsbasert og hjemmebasert omsorg. Vel så interessant er det å se at det ressursmessig i mange analyser er prioriteringene innen rammene gitt av staten, og ikke rammen, i form av frie inntekter, som legger de viktigste føringene for hvordan det prioriteres mellom institusjonsbasert og hjemmebasert omsorg. Videre er det interessant å se at valgkanalen er en svært viktig og høyst reell påvirkningskanal når det gjelder prioriteringen mellom institusjonsbasert og hjemmebasert omsorg. Oppgaven viser at lokalpolitikk ikke er redusert til rikspolitikk med andre virkemidler. Norske kommuner har evnen til å foreta lokale prioriteringer innen rammen gitt av staten, spørsmålet er imidlertid hva som er avgjørende for viljen