five - Extended working lives in Germany from a gender and life-course perspective: a country in policy transition

Summary

Introduction

Extending working lives, especially by closing the well-established routes to early retirement, has been an important German policy goal in recent decades. Although the country has been perceived as successful in these efforts (see, eg, Eichhorst et al, 2009), the effective retirement age was 62.7 in 2014 (OECD, 2015), which is still considerably lower than the state pension age. Furthermore, these policy changes come at a heavy cost for some subgroups of future pensioners. Notably, when a feminist political economy of ageing and life-course perspective is applied (see Chapter Two), a more differentiated picture arises, one that does not show a success story for all.

Many policy areas of the German welfare state that are important for understanding the gendered implications of extended working lives have been reformed over the years – not only employment and pensions, but also child- and long-term care. I argue that policy reforms in these areas have often been based on different agendas or contradictory goals, which makes a clear-cut conclusion difficult in respect to their outcomes in the long run. For example, Germany has initiated several important reforms to increase childcare provision and parental leave schemes in order to improve the situation for families and to encourage women to return to paid work sooner. However, at the same time, the labour market was liberalised to increase atypical employment rather than standard employment, and state pension replacement rates were reduced. The latter developments are harmful for future pension incomes because they reduce the chances of building an adequate income for old age. Interestingly, the pension reform of 2014 reintroduced one early-retirement option for a transitional period and gave stronger acknowledgement of childcare. The latter policy might especially help female pensioners.

Hence, this chapter seeks to answer the questions as to what welfare policy reforms were enacted to extend working lives and whether they succeeded in their goal. First, the German welfare state is briefly sketched; then, the most important reforms for the issue of extending working lives are described. Finally, the impact of those reforms is tentatively assessed from a gender-sensitive perspective.

The institutional context of extending working lives

The German welfare state has typically been classified as belonging to the corporatist-conservative regime type (Esping-Andersen, 1990), with its emphasis on public insurance, earning-related payments, the goal of status maintenance and a strong focus on care provision by the family.