Workers’ willingness to delay retirement in exchange for temporary paid leaves: A case study in a Spanish town

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the factors influencing the willingness to benefit from temporary leave (TL), a life-course policy consisting of the entitlement to temporary paid leaves from work in exchange for delayed retirement.Design/methodology/approachA survey has been conducted amongst the occupied workforce of a medium-sized Spanish town, fairly characteristic of European urban environments in terms of its labour-force composition. The factors predisposing to TL are probed by means of a multivariate analysis (binary logistic regression). The analysis is framed in an age-gender perspective.FindingsThe noteworthy favourable predisposition towards TL emerging from the survey, mainly for the purposes of caring for children and parents, studying and preparing for a new job, appears mostly influenced by the educational level and by the fact of having or not children, without clear sex variations.Originality/valueNotwithstanding the local scope of the survey, its results might orientate future research on TL, which is an emerging policy issue crosscutting several widely recognised social-policy targets within the European Union, such as the extension of working life, lifelong learning and gender equality throughout the life course.