Is There Another Union Premium? The Effect of Union Membership on Retirement Satisfaction

Kevin Neuman

ILR Review, 2011, vol. 64, issue 5, 981-999

Abstract: Because the “average†American is spending more time in retirement it is important to understand how satisfied retirees are with their experience. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study the author tests for a positive union effect on retirement satisfaction. The author does not find evidence for a direct union premium since positive union effects disappear after controlling for retirement planning, finances, job characteristics, and duration. However, the author does find strong indirect union effects due predominantly to union members having greater defined benefit pension coverage and less forced retirement. These results suggest that declining unionization may not reduce overall retirement satisfaction directly; however, it may do so indirectly. In addition, retirement satisfaction appears to be adversely affected by negative work conditions such as stooping and job stress. General findings also show who in society has most difficulty adjusting to retirement.

Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001979391106400507 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:64:y:2011:i:5:p:981-999

DOI: 10.1177/001979391106400507

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in ILR Review from Cornell University, ILR School
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().