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The purpose of this paper is to explore potential benefits and possible pitfalls of the removal of the default retirement age.

A human capital and labour market perspective provide theoretical lenses for exploring the potential implications for individuals, organizations and societies. The paper employs financial costing analysis to demonstrate.

The paper uses the UK case to illustrate anticipated managerial and societal outcomes. The main finding from the discussion and the financial analysis is that indeed the current system is unsustainable.

The paper offers areas where lessons about age management can be learnt from other experiences of flexible retirement strategies such as enhancing older workers ' human capital. The idea is of global nature and relevance and forms a “wake-up call” for decision makers at national level.

It is common for police services to set mandatory retirement ages at a relatively young level. The aim of this paper is to discuss the reasons for, and workforce planning implications of, mandatory retirement within the context of the London Metropolitan Police Service (MPS).

This research is based on in‐depth interviews with seven senior human resource managers and two trade union representatives in the MPS.

Workforce planning issues shaped managers' perceptions of the need for a mandatory retirement age of 60 for police constables. On the one hand, they were under pressure to increase the number of constables, and the possibility of extending working life was seen as one means to that end. On the other, it was feared that the retention of older police officers would lead to career blockages for younger police constables rising through the ranks.

Owing to labour and skills shortages, MPS managers were looking for ways to encourage older police officers to delay retirement. Innovative practices, such as offering flexible working hours, mentoring roles and pension incentives as alternatives to retirement were identified.

The qualitative data put the discussion of mandatory retirement in police services within the context of workforce planning rather than capability. For police authorities that maintain mandatory retirement policies, raising or abolishing retirement age would change the workforce planning paradigm in which police officers are recruited from, and retire at, young ages.

In the context of population aging, retirement has become a central issue in academic, professional and government discourse. A consensus can be seen to be emerging around the idea of postponing retirement in favor of promoting active aging. From this perspective, the purpose of this study, using work-role attachment theory and met expectations theory, is to focus on the pre-retirement period and aims to better understand how certain individual factors and expectations explain the planned age of retirement.

An online survey was administered in 2015 to employees aged 45 and over working at a Canadian firm in the high-technology sector.

The results show that career commitment, attachment to work and expectations relating to workplace adjustments prior to retirement were positively associated with planned retirement age, whereas expectations relating to professional development showed a negative association with this variable.

This study fits into a line of research focusing on the end-of-career period and sheds light on the decision to retire by looking closely at the impact of employment conditions and human resource management practices on this decision. In a labor market context marked by high numbers of workers aged 55 and older, combined with the increasingly critical need for skilled labor and considering the expectations of workers leading up to their retirement could help to better plan these workers' end-of-career period.

Many studies have examined the characteristics of retirees after retirement. The authors’ study is one of the few that examines the aspirations of workers between the ages of 45 and 55 who are still employed but are beginning to consider their retirement plans, including the decision to continue working longer. Its originality also lies in combining work-role attachment theory and met expectations theory.

This article considers the issues raised by the proposed abolition of the mandatory retirement age as a result of the Equal Treatment Directive, 2000/78/EC, and of proposed Age Discrimination in Employment Regulations. It argues that there are a number of distinctive retirement ages, namely, the contractual retirement age, the pensionable retirement age and the actual or normal retirement age. These may coincide or they may occur at different times, but it is only the contractual retirement age that is likely to be abolished by the Regulations. Their effect upon the retirement age will therefore be limited. As part of the research for this article a number of TUC affiliated trade unions were interviewed in order to gain an employee perspective of the issues surrounding the abolition of mandatory retirement ages.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether cross-country differences in pensionable age explain such differences in economic activity of people at near-retirement age.

The empirical study uses regression models for macro-panel encompassing 21 European countries in the period 2008–2014.

Empirical results indicate that pensionable age is a determinant of cross-country differences in employment rate in the near-retirement age group, and less a factor differentiating average effective retirement age. It turns out that other factors matter, including salaries and wages as percentage of GDP (treated as a proxy for the occupational composition of populations across the countries studied), self-employment, participation in education and training, or self-perceived health.

The problem of economic activity at the near-retirement age is complex and cannot be limited to legal regulations concerning pensionable age. The policy aiming at stimulating the economic activity of the near-elderly should include actions on many sides including labour market, pension system, education, training, or health care.

The results complement studies based on the single-country approach and demonstrate that pensionable age does not account for cross-country differences in terms of average effective age of retirement when controlling for other factors. Moreover, factors differentiating effective retirement age and employments rates across countries studied are not similar.

This research aims to look at preferences for retirement, in particular, later retirement, amongst a sample of older employees in the UK in the financial services industry. It seeks to investigate specifically the influence of personal, psychological and psychosocial determinants of preferences for retiring later. Additionally, the study presents a typology of different retirement preferences based on psychological and psychosocial variables.

The data are based on questionnaires from 556 employees of a UK financial services organisation (aged 40‐60) and measures include psychological expectations of retirement (expected adjustment to retirement, attitudes towards leisure and social interaction), psychosocial attitudes (job satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, organisational comment and work commitment) and attitudes towards working beyond normal retirement age. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted and one‐way ANOVA was conducted to identify differences between groups.

The data show very negative attitudes towards working later than the normal retirement age and that expectations of adjustment to retirement were the most significant predictor towards retirement preferences, followed by work commitment. Significant differences in retirement attitudes and intentions were found between different groups of employees.

Some of the practical implications of the work suggest that retirement preferences are shaped only to a moderate degree by psychosocial attitudes. In seeking to retain older workers in the workforce for longer employers should encourage employees to develop strong social relationships at work and allow gradual transitions to ultimate retirement.

The paper looked at preferences for retirement, particularly later retirement, and found that, if employers wish to retain the knowledge, skills and expertise of their employees, then it would seem that they need to devise means of allowing people to achieve some of the more desirable aspects of retirement (greater free time, opportunity to pursue hobbies and interests) at the same time as retaining some of the benefits of work (status, professional interest, income etc.). Phased and flexible retirement initiatives therefore seem to be one of the solutions.

Underpinned by the attraction-selection-attrition theory, this paper aims to investigate the impact of entrepreneurship on an individual’s expected retirement age and explore how job satisfaction and expected retirement financial insufficiency (ERFI) as key factors can explain that.

A framework including direct and indirect relationships among key factors is empirically tested by using a pooled data sets consists of 13,420 individuals from the UK Household Longitudinal Survey, the analysis uses the entropy balance matching method and combined with quasi-bayesian monte Carlo method and hierarchy regressions to enhance the robustness of results.

The research finds entrepreneurs plan to retire later than organizational employees. In addition, a strong mediating impact of job satisfaction and moderating role of ERFI on the relationship between entrepreneurship and expected retirement age is verified.

The theoretical perspective and findings offer a novel insight into the research on entrepreneurs’ decision of retirement. The findings suggest entrepreneurs as crucial policy stakeholders contribute to retirement deferment should be valued. Effective interventions could be delicately designed in the future to unleash the potential of entrepreneurship in dealing with aging challenges.

The study seeks to investigate individual preference for early or late retirement. The aim is to determine the impact that variables at personal, work and organizational, and retirement‐related levels exert on such preference.

A questionnaire was submitted to 275 Italian workers, aged from 45 to 63. The “preferred” and “expected” retirement ages were measured, and a preference for retiring before or after the expected age was computed. The questionnaire included personal (e.g. age, income), work and organizational (e.g. work importance, job demands and control), and retirement‐related variables (level of information on pensions and attitudes to retirement). Hierarchical multiple regressions analyses were conducted to test the impact of such variables on the preference for early or late retirement.

The results show a significant preference for retiring on average three years before the expected age. The preference for postponing retirement is related to chronological age and perception of income adequacy, but also to work variables (work importance, firm policies supporting aged employees) and attitudes to retirement.

Political and organizational strategies concerning old employees should take into account the widespread preference for early retirement. It is, however, possible to encourage late retirement by developing interventions aiming to meliorate working conditions, organizational perceptions and retirement attitudes.

The difference between preferred and expected retirement age may be useful to identify employees preferring late retirement. It is also suggested that certain psychosocial factors are related to such preference. This knowledge is relevant for European policies encouraging employees to stay longer in the workforce.

It is common for police services to set mandatory retirement ages at relatively young ages. This paper seeks to discuss the reasons for, and workforce planning implications of, mandatory retirement within the context of the London Metropolitan Police Service (MPS).

In‐depth interviews were carried out with seven senior human resource managers and two trade union representatives in the MPS.

Workforce planning issues shaped managers' perceptions on the need for a mandatory retirement age of 60 for police constables. On the one hand, they were under pressure to increase the number of constables, and the possibility of extending working life was seen as one means to that end. On the other, it was feared that the retention of older police officers would lead to career blockages for younger police constables rising through the ranks.

Owing to labour and skills shortages, MPS managers were looking for ways to encourage older police officers to delay retirement. Innovative practices, such as offering flexible working hours, mentoring roles and pension incentives as alternatives to retirement were identified.

The qualitative data put the discussion of mandatory retirement in police services within the context of workforce planning rather than capability. For police authorities that maintain mandatory retirement policies, raising or abolishing retirement age would change the workforce planning paradigm in which police officers are recruited from, and retire at, young ages.

Modelling for age and retirement becomes essential in many situations where promotion is age‐based and retirement is on attaining a particular age. A step by step approach to modelling retirement and average age of population through system dynamics is presented. The deterministic situation, with fixed residence time, is presented first and, then, the system equations are modified to accommodate probabilistic age of individuals by normal distribution. The proposed model has been tested and a few policy alternatives are suggested.