Tailoring the workplace is the key to keeping skilled women at work

Longer working lives for Australian women of the baby boom generation? - Women's views and the policy implications of an ageing female workforce.

Attitudes to older people's desire and capacity to contribute to society are changing. With an increasing proportion of older people in the Australian population and increasing health and longevity, more older people are participating in the workforce. Reasons for this include sustaining economic growth, easing pressure on government income-support systems and providing meaning and social connection for people in later life. Population ageing leads to changes in the economy, workforce, family structures, local communities, living arrangements, public expenditure and revenue, labour force participation rates, retirement decisions and consumption patterns.

What do these changes mean for the people that are now approaching retirement? What are the views of baby boomers? What policies should be developed and implemented to address population ageing? The discourse about our ageing population and its implications for the Australian retirement system has only over the last few years started to attract the attention of the mass media - often portrayed with a negative bias and more distortion than fact. There has also been a growing interest in issues concerning the baby boomers.

This article reports on a research project focusing on Australian women of the baby boom generation, their working futures, and the work-retirement decision. This was explored both from the viewpoint of women and from a social policy perspective. The research comprised three studies: focus group research, computer-mediated communication (CMC) involving an Internet website and four scenarios for the year 2020, and the analysis of quantitative data from a large survey.

Working past age 65

The vast majority of the professional women and managers as well as some women in clerical and administrative positions who participated in the focus group discussions were open to the possibility of working past the age of 65 - but only if the conditions are right. Achieving a balance between work and other aspects of life, such as family, friends, study, community work, caring responsibilities and time for oneself, was found to be important to these women. Consequently, the women reported that they were only prepared to continue working past the traditional retirement age if a balance between work and other aspects of life could be achieved. Part-time work, project work or a different type of paid work were considered as possibilities. However, women in low-skilled occupations said that they wanted to retire as early as possible. Unlike plans for paid work, the women's enthusiasm for future volunteering went across occupational backgrounds.

The preferred retirement age for about half of all baby-boom women in the survey was between 55-59 years, although nearly one in ten wanted to work beyond the age of 64. The higher a woman's education level, the more likely she was to expect a later retirement. Further, the analysis of the data by occupational status found the following differences: the higher a woman's occupational status, the more likely she was to work longer hours, have a preference to work less, have not enough spare time, and the less likely she was to regard her income as the primary motivation to work. The focus groups and the survey included women who had plans to change the type of their work in the future.

The research found that paid work provided women in professional, managerial and some of the women in clerical positions with a sense of fulfilment, control over their creative activity and contribution to the community. While women in low-skilled occupations were found not to be able to obtain these benefits from their paid work, they considered unpaid work as a meaningful and socially useful activity over which they had control. Consequently, it appears that some non-financial benefits derived from unpaid work by low-skilled women may be similar to those gained by women in high-skilled occupations from paid work.

Despite the many negative aspects of contemporary workplaces, most women in the focus group discussions who commented on their paid work stated that they liked at least certain aspects of it. Many of the women who said that they worked mainly for financial reasons also remarked that they enjoyed the social aspects of their work - the social networks and the companionship with fellow workers.

However, the nature of current workplaces was found to be of great concern to the women. Participants in the focus group discussions and the CMC research commented on women's disadvantage in the workplace. In particular, they pointed to women's lower wages and reduced labour force participation and the implications for career options and retirement savings. Workplace changes over the last decade have reinforced this disadvantage. The casualisation of the workforce has affected women more than men, the experience of corporate downsizing has led to less job security and workplaces were perceived as lacking flexibility to suit women's needs. While some women reported that they had to work long hours, others were unable to find work, in particular those who tried to join the workforce after having taken time out to raise children or care for a partner. As a consequence, women felt time-deprived, rushed, pressured and stressed.

Providing unpaid work

Many women reported that they looked forward to volunteering in retirement. One in three women in the survey voiced this intention; many focus group participants noted their plans for volunteering in later life, and participants in the CMC research anticipated an increased level of volunteering in the future. Women's motivation for providing unpaid work for their communities varied, including a concern for others, giving something back to the community, keeping busy and increasing social contact. The women perceived volunteer work as providing mental stimulation, purposeful activity, social contact, and - unlike paid work - as having sufficient flexibility when combined with family responsibilities and other pursuits.

Caring is a type of unpaid work which is predominantly provided by women, is usually associated with financial disadvantage for the carer, and may have repercussions for the carer's health and well-being. Not surprisingly, the women who participated in this research expressed concerns for the care of their ageing parents and other relatives. They found the required support services in short supply, and commented that governments had reduced entitlements and cut services such as nursing home care and carer support. Many of the women in the focus group discussions reported that they juggled paid work and caring responsibilities, which often left them exhausted and with insufficient free time. They anticipated that in the future the expectations on women's time from partners, children and older relatives would increase.

Financing retirement

Anticipated financial resources in retirement were crucial to the women's plans for the future. Few women were confident that they had or would accumulate sufficient savings for their retirement. The issues that were raised in regard to the superannuation system were numerous and included the following main concerns:

• the superannuation system is too complex and too difficult to understand;
• the media and governments provide conflicting messages about the required savings for older age;
• the system is modelled on the male work experience and disadvantages women;
• some funds charge excessive fees;
• taxes on superannuation savings are too high; and
• financial advisers and fund managers are frequently perceived as biased and dishonest.

Of particular concern were the current policy shift in favour of savings in private superannuation schemes by neo-liberal governments and inadequate government regulation of the superannuation system. In this regard, the focus group participants expressed very clearly and unanimously that they wanted the government age pension to be maintained.

Some women in the focus group discussions also pointed out that planning for later life was difficult because of a rapidly changing society, lack of understanding of financial and investment matters, or a changing family situation where adult children moved back home or needed financial support. In particular, women in low-skilled occupations said that they found it difficult to plan ahead.

Policy implications

Policies for an ageing female workforce should be based on the values of inclusiveness, fairness, self-determination, and social justice. Choice is important to baby boomers, and social policy of the future will need to consider a wide range of options across all spheres of life. Further, social policy will have to take account of women's multiple roles - for example, as workers, mothers, daughters, grandmothers, partners in a couple relationship, friends, carers, citizens, and as individuals who want to achieve a balance in their lives and align their work with their values. Inclusive processes of consultation and citizen participation in the policy development processes are crucial.

Prolonging working lives

Prolonged working lives should be a choice. Equality in the workplace and favourable working and tax conditions might influence the work and retirement decisions of those who consider staying in paid employment past the age of 65 years. Tax incentives should also be used to persuade employers to recruit and maintain an age-balanced workforce.

More flexible workplaces to achieve a better work-life balance are important for the whole workforce, not just for women. However, flexibility at work is essential if mature female workers are to be encouraged to prolong their working lives.

Increased opportunities for skills development are required if older employees are expected to stay in the workforce for longer. Further, the topic of prolonging working lives needs to be brought into mainstream social and economic debate, with people from a diverse range of backgrounds given opportunities to contribute to such a discourse.

Government regulation should seek to achieve protection for particularly disadvantaged groups of older women, such as those in ill health, with few financial resources, and/or no significant social networks.

Those women who do not wish or are not able to be in paid employment beyond the age of 65 years often provide unpaid work for the benefit of their families and communities. Such unpaid work needs to be encouraged and supported to a much greater extent than at present. Additional opportunities for involvement in community work that take women's interests, skills, and experience into account are required, together with a culture of recognition. A culture of recognition should encompass the provision of training and material, human, and financial resources, and should make civil activities more visible. However, the provision of community work should not be a requirement for access to government income support.

Improving income systems

At present, Australia operates a highly targeted and punitive social security system. More than one in five Australians of working-age rely on this system for income support, most of these for the majority of their income. It is likely that this proportion will increase in the future. Therefore, it is proposed that a system be explored that would provide a guaranteed minimum income for all Australians. Such a basic income would be above the poverty line, without means test or work requirement, and available to all Australians. A range of different models exists already (e.g's here, here, and here) and an exploration should focus on a suitable model for Australian circumstances. Coinciding with such an exploration should be a gradual simplification of Centrelink benefits and a public discourse about all aspects of a future minimum income system.

Community education about financial planning and investment products should be increased. Governments should fund not-for-profit organisations for the provision of financial advice that is independent, honest and easy to understand. Further, the Australian superannuation system should be improved to eradicate inequities. In particular, this would include recognition of time out of the workforce for family reasons or study, increased transparency of financial transactions, removal of the $450 earnings threshold and front-end taxes, extension of the government co-contribution concept to people who provide unpaid caring work, legislation for full compensation in the event of theft or fraud, taxation concessions for people who postpone withdrawing superannuation savings, equal treatment of same-sex partners and heterosexual couples in all Australian States and Territories, and broader representation of women in decision-making positions across all sectors of superannuation.