The UK is “dangerously close” to a society completely split between wealthy early retirees and ill-pensioned employees that have to keep working past retirement age, the leading age campaign group has warned.
Freda Line, head of employer relations at the Employers Forum on Age, said this two-tier society was already beginning to emerge in the UK.
She said this social division will be exacerbated in different employment sectors, particularly retail and the public sector.
“Large numbers of people doing low-grade jobs are having to stay on longer, whereas management can always retire early,” she said. “What does that say about the kind of place it is to work?
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“Employers must be really creative and spot these differences emerging now,” she warned.
Line was talking at a roundtable discussion on age hosted by technology giant IBM last week.
