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Paid Work Beyond Pension Age pp 278–297Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The Decline of ‘Late Freedom’? Work, Retirement and Activation — Comparative Insights from Germany and the USA

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Abstract

When it comes to work and retirement, we establish three topics that are currently up for debate in several countries: the rising employment rates of older workers, increases in pension age and the growing prevalence of work beyond retirement. There are several drivers of these developments. First, they are part of fundamental welfare state reforms, as well as of new employment strategies that pursue full employment, including even those sections of the population who had traditionally been willingly excluded. Second, the rejuvenation of old age in medical and social terms has been ongoing for some time, with rising life expectancy and new images of ageing in media, advertising and everyday life. Finally, new generations of elderly have entered the stage with the post-war cohorts of the rather wealthy, healthy and better educated ‘young-old’ currently moving into retirement age.

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Authors
  1. Silke van Dyk
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bremen, Germany

    Simone Scherger

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© 2015 Silke van Dyk

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van Dyk, S. (2015). The Decline of ‘Late Freedom’? Work, Retirement and Activation — Comparative Insights from Germany and the USA. In: Scherger, S. (eds) Paid Work Beyond Pension Age. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137435149_13

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