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The paper concentrates on the problem of age discrimination in the labour market and the way it can be conceptualised and measured in a multi-disciplinary way. The approach proposed here combines two understandings of age discrimination—a sociological and legal one, what allows for a fuller and expanded understanding of ageism in the workplace. At the heart of the study is a survey carried out in Poland with a sample of 1000 men and women aged 45–65 years. The study takes a deeper and innovative look into the issue of age discrimination in employment. Confirmatory factor analysis with WLSMV estimation and logistic regressions were used to test the hypotheses. The study shows that age discrimination in labour market can take on different forms: hard and soft, where the hard type of age discrimination mirrors the legally prohibited types of behaviours and those which relate to the actual decisions of employers which can impact on the employee's career development. The soft discrimination corresponds with those occurrences, which are not inscribed in the legal system per se, are occurring predominantly in the interpersonal sphere, but can nevertheless have negative consequences. Soft discrimination was experienced more often (28.6% of respondents) than hard discrimination (15.7%) with higher occurrences among women, persons in precarious job situation or residents of urban areas. The role of education was not confirmed to influence the levels of perceived age discrimination.

Perek‐Białas J, Turek K. Organisation‐level policy towards older workers in PolandThis article presents the results of studies on organisation‐level strategies towards older workers in Poland. The analyses were based on a national and representative sample survey of 1,037 companies (public and private sectors) – the first of its kind in Poland. The question of the survey was: How do Polish employers deal with an ageing workforce and how can management tap into their potential through various measures? The analyses revealed three different strategies: (i) improvement of productivity – trying to improve the skills and competencies of older workers, increase their effective use of and adjustment to the workplace, plan individual career moves and avoid work burn‐out; (ii) the pushing out of older workers – attempting to rid the workplace of older workers as quickly as possible; (iii) accommodation and reduction of labour costs – slowly preparing senior workers for retirement and creating conditions that would meet their actual needs.

Abstract
Public policies encourage later retirement, but they often do not account for discrepancies in the capacity for extending working lives. This paper studies trends and inequalities in extending working lives between 1990 and 2019 from gender and education perspectives in seven countries (Australia, Germany, Russia, South Korea, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States). The three-decade-long data provide insights into the societal transition toward extended employment that began in the mid-1990s. Using latent class growth analysis, we identify five universal trajectories representing late-life employment in all countries: Early, Standard and Late Exit patterns, and stable Nonemployment and Late Employment patterns. Regression analyses show that Non-Employment dominated the 1990s, but it significantly declined, giving space to Late Employment as one of the major employment pathways. Gender and educational differences are considerable and stable and constitute important stratification markers of late careers. Progress toward later employment affects all analyzed countries but in different ways, suggesting the simple generalizations of one-country findings can be risky. We discuss the risks of universal progress toward extending employment that can bring unequal results and negative consequences for vulnerable groups. This study also contributes methodologically by exploring the trajectory-oriented perspective on late careers.

Populations around the globe are ageing rapidly. This demographic shift affects families, market structures and social provisions. This timely volume, part of the Ageing and the Lifecourse series, argues that the lifecourse perspective helps us understand the causes and effects of population ageing. The lifecourse perspective suggests that individuals' experiences at an early age can influence their decisions and behaviour at a later age. This much-needed volume combines insights from different disciplines and real-life experiences to describe the theories and practices behind this idea. It therefore caters to the needs of scholars, practitioners and policy makers in a range of areas including sociology and political science