New medical study finds retirement age should not be raised

Health & Wellness

By Rashmee Roshan Lall

12 May 2020

New findings on lower healthy life expectancy for workers in physically demanding jobs are out today (May 12) and they have serious implications for European governments seeking to raise the retirement age.

The large long-term study of Danish workers in hundreds of different types of jobs was published online in�Occupational & Environmental Medicine, one of the British Medical Journals 70 specialist journals.

The findings are stark: physically demanding jobs are linked to shorter working lives, more sick leave and higher unemployment than white-collar jobs.

Workers in construction, cleaning, manufacturing and manual labour, such as carpentry, masonry, painting and plumbing, can be expected to have fewer years of working, to need more sick leave and face longer periods of unemployment.

At the age of 30, the study found, a man in a physically demanding job could be expected to have a working life that would last almost 32 years, compared to nearly 34 years for men with physically undemanding jobs. Among women, the equivalent figures were just over 29.5 years and nearly 33 years, respectively.

A 30-year-old woman in a physically demanding job would also take 11 more months of sick leave and suffer 16 more months of unemployment than a woman in a non-physically demanding role. The equivalent figures for a man would be 12 and 8 more months respectively.

The findings say something much deeper than the simple truth that hard physical labour is&well, hard, and that it takes a toll.

We already know, from the UK government-funded 2017 Skills and Employment Survey, that insecure jobs often have unhealthy features. These include severe psychological and physical strain.

The new Danish study reveals that healthy life expectancy isnt necessarily increasing at the same rate as life expectancy, even in a rich and secure country. It shows that physical labour affects muscle strength and the ability to work as one ages.

As many have found in this pandemic era, with cleaning help locked down just as much as everyone else, physical work is enormously challenging.

It takes a certain kind of grit to work for decades with your hands or on your feet, without much job security, a proper pension (or even healthcare in the US), and any real chance of upward mobility.

The new study shows that governments need to address the issue of workers in physically demanding jobs. California, for instance, has created a universal public pension programme to ensure that cleaners dont literally work themselves to death. Other states and countries are expected to follow suit if they want to keep their citizens around, and in good health, for longer.