ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the Finnish welfare state policy affecting the relationship between ageing and work by focusing on the signs of change from the policy promoting early retirement to the policy promoting staying at work. To give a picture of the empirical reality of the ageing Finnish society, it presents an overview of the employment situation of the ageing labour force. The chapter outlines the different phases in the development of early exit pathways and describes the composition of institutional exit arrangements. Besides analysing the policy lines and the macro level outcomes in the form of exit arrangements and employment rate, it looks at the outcome of the early/late exit policy from the perspective of the individual. The chapter discusses the Finnish welfare state paradigm regulating the end of the working life. In Finland, as in other European countries, the labour market and social policies have had an important effect on the organisation of the end of the working life.
