Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

1. Introduction
In many Continental European countries, a trend towards earlier exit from the labour
market has established itself. In line with this trend, the last decades have witnessed a drop
in activity rates and employment rates of persons at the age of 50 years and more. (In the
following, that group of workers will be treated as ´older workers´ in line with the
delineation of national „50 plus” programmes.) Those indicators have gone up again in the
recent years but still remain at a low level.
Poland and Germany are not spared from this development. In Poland between 1992 and
2006, the factual retirement age has dropped on average by 0.4 years – which is not very
much, but occurred from an already low level. In Germany, the age of take-up of an old-age
pension reached the lowest point in 1998 (62.5 years, a drop by already 1.8 years when
compared to 1970) but has risen afterwards. The low retirement age is reflected in low
employment rates. In Germany, the employment rate of people aged 55 to 64 has dropped
between 1970 and mid-nineties, most pronounced in the age range 60-64 years. Since 2000,
however, employment rates of all older workers (with the exception of 50-54-year-old men,
as will be shown in section 3.2.) have been on the increase, which is inter al. the result of the
paradigm change with regard to pension policies. Among 50-54-year olds, a rise in
employment rates is visible since 2004.
Social policy reforms in Poland and Germany have addressed the drop in employment
rates and the exit age from the labour force. An investigation of the effects of those reforms,
as my work intends to accomplish, is interesting as it might answer the question why there
was a stop to the downward trend in employment rates and the average retirement age in
Germany, while in Poland, only the employment rate of the 50-54-years olds has risen
upwards in the last years. The effectiveness of those policies, and as a result, the reversal of
the early exit trend, is in the vital interests of the social security systems in the two
countries, of the national economy, and of the workers concerned.
Firstly, the early exit trend has developed against the background of rising life
expectancy and rising healthy years in life, thus placing a financial strain on national
pension systems and contributing to the increase of labour costs. Secondly, the demographic
changes will lead in the middle run to a decrease of the labour force in European countries,
which will necessitate companies to more effectively use the available workforce, including
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