Research finds global rejection of mandatory retirement

The Future of Retirement, commissioned by HSBC and carried out by market research firms AgeWave and Harris Interactive, found people globally believe that age-based restrictions “hinder the active life” that people want to lead in their later years.

“Our research reveals a resounding global rejection of age-based restrictions on working, with people throughout the world being opposed to a mandatory retirement age and any government or corporate rules preventing older people from working in retirement,” the report stated.

“Indeed, four out of five respondents said that people should be able to go on working to any age so long as they are still capable of doing their jobs well, and that employers shouldn’t fix a retirement age. A majority of people in each of the countries and territories say they would work in retirement, ranging from 55% in Hong Kong to 95% in Mexico.”

The report found attitudes towards retirement varied widely across countries, with more than 90% of respondents in the UK and US believing employees should be able to work as long as they like, compared to just over 60% holding the same view in India and China.

“However, in these countries and territories people may be linking the idea of forced retirement with the luxury of being able to afford to retire, and thus support it,” the report noted. “The same is unlikely to be true of France, where 23% of people think that employers should be able to force employees to retire at a particular age.”

In other findings, only one quarter of those questioned think raising taxes is the first thing a government should do to support and finance the ageing population. And Brazil is the only country where people believe reducing pensions would be the best course of action.

Americans were found to be the most opposed to age-based restrictions on working while the British were “strongly opposed” to mandatory retirement and the vast majority of Japanese oppose the idea.

Interviews were conducted in the UK, US, France, Brazil, Mexico, Hong Kong, Canada, Japan, India and China in September and October of last year.