Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

fact in Germany rather than in Poland. (Gender differences in average replacement rates are
large in both countries.) The disability pathway has been closed in both countries with the
exception of the assessment criterion of the pension level in Poland (this should have been
brought in line with that of the reformed old-age pensions by 2009, but President Lech
Kaczyński has exercised his power of veto and stopped the law on grounds of „unfairness“;
the veto was later upheld by the Parliament 42 ). Early retirement pensions will soon not be
available without deductions in Germany, while in Poland, ´bridging pensions´ will be
available to some of the persons previously entitled to early retirement who still remain in
the old pension system. Poland also lags behind Germany with regard to the still open
unemployment pathway, and the opinion of Poles on the optimum age of retirement have
also not adapted to changed circumstances across the years.
On part of demand-side variables, Poland suffers from several structural inhibitors to the
prolongation of working life when compared to Germany: it is still a country with a high
share of agricultural work, resulting in structural unemployment. Older workers are loweducated,
employed to a high extent in manual occupations, and seldom participate in parttime
work. Moreover, their subjective health status is low till medium when compared to
Germany.
That knowledge lets us assume that it will be more difficult for Poland to achieve a
sustainable reversal of the early exit trend when the institutional and socio-economic setting
is concerned. The next chapters will assess hypothesis 6 with regard to the personnel policy
of firms.
42 „Renta wyższa niż emerytura?“, Gazeta Wyborcza (Leszek Kostrzewski) 28. Dec. 2008.
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