IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/ijmpps/v33y2012i6p629-647.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ageing and employers’ perceptions of labour costs and productivity

Author

Listed:
  • Wieteke S. Conen
  • Hendrik P. van Dalen
  • Kène Henkens

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine employers’ perceptions of changes in the labour cost‐productivity gap due to the ageing of the workforce, the effects of tenure wages and employment protection on the perceived gap, and whether a perceived labour cost‐productivity gap affects employers’ recruitment and retention behaviour towards older workers. Design/methodology/approach - The authors analyse surveys administered to employers in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden. Findings - Approximately half of employers associate the ageing of the personnel with a growing gap between labour costs and productivity. Both the presence of tenure wages and employment protection rules increase the probability of employers perceiving a widening labour cost‐productivity gap due to the ageing of their workforce. A counterfactual shows that even when employment protection and tenure wage systems are abolished, 40 percent of employers expect a net cost increase. The expected labour cost‐productivity gap negatively affects both recruitment and retention of older workers. Originality/value - In this paper, the wage‐productivity gap is examined through the perceptions of employers using an international comparative survey.

Suggested Citation

  • Wieteke S. Conen & Hendrik P. van Dalen & Kène Henkens, 2012. "Ageing and employers’ perceptions of labour costs and productivity," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 33(6), pages 629-647, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:ijmpps:v:33:y:2012:i:6:p:629-647
    DOI: 10.1108/01437721211261796
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/01437721211261796/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/01437721211261796/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/01437721211261796?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Moraes, Ricardo Kalil & Wanke, Peter Fernandes & Faria, João Ricardo, 2021. "Unveiling the endogeneity between social-welfare and labor efficiency: Two-stage NDEA neural network approach," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    2. Anja Deelen & Marloes de Graaf-Zijl & Wiljan van den Berge, 2018. "Labour market effects of job displacement for prime-age and older workers," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-30, December.
    3. Anja Deelen & Marloes de Graaf-Zijl & Wiljan van den Berge, 2018. "Labour market effects of job displacement for prime-age and older workers," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-30, December.
    4. Rob Euwals & Anja Deelen, 2014. "Do Wages Continue Increasing at Older Ages? Evidence on the Wage Cushion in the Netherlands," CPB Discussion Paper 282.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    5. Kolobova, Valeriya A. & Zyatchin, Andrey V., 2016. "Business Process for the Selection of the Raw MaterialsÙ Supplier on the Example of the Company "Yuzhtehmontazh"," Conference Papers 8676, Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg State University.
    6. Rob Euwals & Anja Deelen, 2014. "Do Wages Continue Increasing at Older Ages? Evidence on the Wage Cushion in the Netherlands," CPB Discussion Paper 282, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    7. Hendrik Dalen & Kène Henkens, 2013. "Dilemmas of Downsizing During the Great Recession: Crisis Strategies of European Employers," De Economist, Springer, vol. 161(3), pages 307-329, September.
    8. van Dalen, H.P. & Henkens, K., 2015. "Why Demotion of Older Workers is a No-Go Area for Managers," Other publications TiSEM cef69d5e-bcc2-4082-b9fa-0, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    9. Kosowski Tanja, 2018. "The Notion of Age in Organizational Research," Journal of Management and Business Administration. Central Europe, Sciendo, vol. 26(4), pages 32-46, December.
    10. Garcia, Maria Teresa Medeiros & Fontainha, Elsa & Passos, José, 2017. "Hiring older workers: The case of Portugal," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 9(C), pages 71-77.
    11. Deelen, Anja & Euwals, Rob, 2014. "Do Wages Continue Increasing at Older Ages? Evidence on the Wage Cushion in the Netherlands," IZA Discussion Papers 8467, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Jaap Oude Mulders & Hendrik Dalen & Kène Henkens & Joop Schippers, 2014. "How Likely are Employers to Rehire Older Workers After Mandatory Retirement? A Vignette Study Among Managers," De Economist, Springer, vol. 162(4), pages 415-431, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:ijmpps:v:33:y:2012:i:6:p:629-647. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.