Elderly workers in the Netherlands feel wanted - May 1, 2009

Amsterdam - Good news for countries with a rapidly aging work force: Dutch workers over 50 don’t feel discriminated against by their employers vis-à-vis their younger colleagues. They think they deserve their earnings, they are offered training opportunities like everybody else – they feel. And they feel (almost) just as wanted by their boss than younger employees: 6 out of 10 against an average of 7 out of 10. They know however to be less productive, slower, more often on sick leave or on holiday than their younger colleagues. The younger employees add to this picture that their elder colleagues are slower and given physically easier tasks. But they don’t seem to mind so much. This outcome of a recent WageIndicator survey of 12,000 means that it should not be too difficult to promote elderly workers’ continued participation in the economy till the age of 65.

Contrary however to the well established collective practice that earnings increase with age, half of the elderly Dutch workers hold that they don’t earn more than their younger colleagues. Full report.

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