Retirement
Phased Retirement: Who Opts for It and Toward What End?
Research Report
Yung-Ping Chen, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Boston
John C. Scott, J.D., MA, Cornell University
January 2006
Learn More
- Report Home
- Full Report (PDF)
- In Brief (HTML)
- In Brief (PDF)
Some employees are able to modify their full-time work status in some fashion in order to “phase down” their career employment as they approach full retirement. This phenomenon has not yet been extensively studied, but it may become increasingly common and important as the workforce continues to age. This AARP Public Policy Institute Issue Paper examines various aspects of phased retirement, using six waves from 1992 through 2002 of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a longitudinal study sponsored by the National Institute on Aging.
The HRS surveys and follows a nationally representative sample of persons who were between the ages of 51 and 61 in 1992. This Issue Paper distinguishes between workers who remained with their 1992 employer but at reduced hours (phased retirement) and those employed part time with a different employer (partial retirement). Investigators compare these two groups of workers to the “completely retired” and those who were “not retired at all.”
Phased retirees were found to be better educated, had greater household wealth and income, were more likely to be managers and in white-collar, highly skilled positions, and were less likely to face constraints on reducing hours and less likely to participate in a defined benefit pension plan. They were also more likely to have a positive view of work. Of particular significance is the finding that phased retirement did not appear to be associated with early exit from the workforce. (58 pages)
Pub ID: 2006-01