Phased Retirement for Older Workers in Taiwan

Abstract

Among older workers around the world, working part-time has become a popular option as a transition from a full-time job toward full retirement. Five waves of The Survey of Health and Living Status of the Elderly (SHLSE) in Taiwan from 1989 to 2003 are used to study older workers’ part-time work behaviors. The data confirms that more than 20% of full-time older workers with at least 10 years of job tenure do not just fully retire from their career jobs. Moreover, there exists a significant portion of older workers who stay with their career jobs and work part-time; this is different from what Quinn et al. (1990) and Chen (2004) both found in the 1970’s and 1990’s in the United States. The empirical results also show that older or married workers are less likely to use phased retirement options. In addition, workers with longer work experience or years of job tenure are more likely to work part-time on their career jobs in Taiwan.