Social Class and Early Retirement: A Life Course Perspective

Abstract

Although strong evidence on the impact of social class on early retirement behavior exist, it is relatively unexplored to what extent the effect of social class on early retirement changes as individuals’ age over the life course. Based on the ‘cumulative dis/ advantage’ theory, I argue that the social class differences in early retirement will increase over the life course, because members of the working class throughout their working life have been more exposed to push factors like unemployment and poor health compared to members of the higher service class. Using Danish administrative register data, this study conducts event-history analysis, in which the cohort born in 1951 are followed from the age of 50 and until early retirement takes place. The results show that members of the working class retire signifi cantly earlier than members of the higher service class do and the difference between the two groups increases signifi cantly over the later life course. The results also show that previous spells of unemployment and poor health from midlife have long-term consequences for the risk of early retirement and the social class effects on the risk of early retirement are partially explained by the contemporaneous effects of unemployment and health status.