Figure 1. Courtesy of iStock by Getty Images. The amount of pension saved throughout one’s career is a key factor for determining the optimal time to retire.
For women, retirement is a double-edged sword: it provides the opportunity to relax, but it also means losing your income or a sense of fulfillment from your job. In China, strict retirement policies complicate this tension. Established in the 1950s—back when the average life expectancy of a woman was forty-three—these policies held that blue-collar female workers must retire at age fifty and white-collar female workers at fifty-five. In a recent study, Yale public health researcher Xi Chen and his colleagues analyzed this policy to explore how retirement impacts women’s mental health.
The study used medical claims data to compare the hospitalization rates of Chinese white-collar and blue-collar female workers due to mental health-related issues. They found that blue-collar workers incurred more hospitalizations post-retirement, which may stem from stress-related mental disorders due to early retirement, more time spent with family members who recognize their issues, or diagnoses received when seeking medical care post-retirement. In contrast, white-collar workers experienced a lower increase in hospitalizations, and those who developed issues often had long-term disorders like schizophrenia. This could be because they have more resources and financial support to address mental health issues while working and increased stress relief upon leaving a mentally demanding job.
“Retirement age should be adjusted to life expectancy, education levels, and the type of job people are engaging in,” Chen said. New research continues to show that the appropriate retirement age varies from individual to individual, demonstrating that personal agency and early recognition of retirement’s potential negative effects on mental health are crucial to a happier workforce.
[Citations]
Wang, T., Sun, R., Sindelar, J. L., & Chen, X. (2024). Occupational differences in the effects of retirement on hospitalizations for mental illness among female workers: Evidence from administrative data in China. Economics & Human Biology, 53, 101367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2024.101367