ABSTRACT
There is a clear trend towards premature retirement from the labour market in Belgium. Many Belgians realise a comparatively extreme early retirement. This chapter identifies the determinants of an early exit from the labour market to identify the factors that should be manipulated in order to spread work more evenly over the life course. People leaving the labour market before the age of 45 were not taken into account in calculating the age of retirement. Therefore these calculations do not refer to the total post-active phase, nor are they dealing with the total nonactive phase or non-participation in the labour market. Individuals with a financial responsibility towards children are said to be particularly less prone to premature exit from the labour market. The disposable individual income, the expectations regarding the evolution of the financial situation after retirement, the additional pension from employer-sponsored pension plans, as well as home ownership, all play an important or an extremely important role.
