Older women workers

Job quality and sustainability, including skill development, security and work-life balance must improve to keep older women at work, a study by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) reports.

Eurofound says that the combined negative consequences of differences in work for men and women means that, although women’s participation rate in the labour market is increasing, older women especially suffer disproportionate disadvantage that continues into their pension years.

Women over the age of 55 are more likely to have short-term or temporary contracts than their male counterparts, less likely to have secure employment, and much more likely to work part time. Part-time work among women employees is four times that of men. Among women aged 45-54, 25.5% work part-time compared to 3.8% of men of a similar age; among women over 55, 37% work part-time compared to 12% of men, Europe-wide.

Women are also more likely to be concentrated in lower-paying sectors such as domestic services, health, social services, education and personal services, while men dominate construction, energy, transport, manufacturing and agriculture. Lower wages and earlier retirement, combined with a shorter lifetime contribution period due to time out for caring, translate into lower pensions for women.

“The issue deserves to be higher on the collective bargaining agenda,” the report argues.

Drawing on experience – Older women workers in Europe can be downloaded from: www.eurofound.europa.eu/pubdocs/2008/85/en/2/EF0885EN.pdf