SSM - Population Health 13 (2021) 100735 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect SSM - Population Health journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ssmph Happiness and life expectancy by main occupational position among older workers: Who will live longer and happy? Mariona Lozano a, *, Aïda Solé-Auró b a Centre D’Estudis Demogràfics, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, C/ Ca N’Altayó, E2, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain b DemoSoc Research Group, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, C/ Ramon Trias Fargas, 25-27, 08005, Barcelona, Spain A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Keywords: Current concerns about aging populations are being translated into legislations to postpone the statutory age at Happy life expectancy retirement. However, if this is done without considering inequalities in longevity across occupational groups, Occupation some may face higher vulnerabilities than others. We examine differences in life expectancy and happiness by Aging occupational position for the Spanish population aged 50 and over. We use happiness as a measure of subjective Spain wellbeing, and compute life expectancy and happy life expectancy by sex and main occupation. Age-specific death rates are calculated using administrative data, and happiness prevalence comes from the European So­ cial Survey. We show that both men and women in managerial positions were advantaged in terms of life ex­ pectancy, but only men record more years with happiness. In addition, women in routine jobs were the ones who could expect to live shorter and unhappier. Postponing the statutory age at retirement without considering these differences could be detrimental to women’s wellbeing and health. 1. Introduction comparisons across countries, age groups, and sexes. However, there are important differences in how happiness is reported by sex and main Population aging has posed pressure in the public finances of most occupational position. For example, manual and routine jobs have been European countries, and most governments are opting for increasing the associated with lower levels of health (Trudel et al., 2016) and women average age at retirement. However, lower socioeconomic groups are are more likely to work in poorer quality jobs (Siegrist et al., 2007). living shorter and arriving at retirement in unhealthier states (Cambois This work explores differences in longevity and happiness according et al., 2011). to main occupational position for men and women over 50 years old in Nonetheless, most of the studies assessing differences in life expec­ Spain. This country is an interesting case of study because it recently tancy and wellbeing across social groups have used educational back­ recorded one of the highest life expectancies in Europe (Eurostat, 2019), ground, which cannot capture either the differences in job training or particularly among women. However, longer life expectancy is not other career investments, nor the volatility in economic status during translated into healthier and more satisfying lives for all social groups adulthood that may adversely affect the quality of life (Duncan et al., (Solé-Auró & Lozano, 2019). Until very recently data on socioeconomic 2002). Hence, when dealing with the debate on the consequences of differences in mortality were not available for this country. Therefore, it longer working lives, occupational position seems to be a more relevant was not possible to compute life and healthy life expectancies by criterion to classify populations. In general, it has been found that those occupational position. Recent studies in this direction showed that more who work live healthier and happier than those who are inactive advantaged socioeconomic groups had a higher life expectancy (Martin (Rosenthal et al., 2012; Zabkiewicz, 2010). et al., 2017; Solé-Auró & Lozano, 2019). However, these few studies Happiness is a subjective indicator of the quality of life and denotes have used educational background, and we aim to estimate social dif­ individual and social wellbeing. It also influences longevity, and happier ferences according to occupation. At the same time, gender inequalities people tend to live healthier and longer (Koopmans et al., 2010). in the labor market aggravate differences in life expectancy and well­ Happiness can be used to complement other objectives measures of in­ being. In Spain, women tend to be less attached to the labor market than dividuals’ wellbeing, such as economic living conditions, and it allows men (Sánchez-Mira, 2016), and their working trajectories are less secure * Corresponding author. E-mail address: mlozano@ced.uab.es (M. Lozano). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100735 Received 19 October 2020; Received in revised form 8 January 2021; Accepted 9 January 2021 Available online 14 January 2021 2352-8273/© 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). M. Lozano and A. Solé-Auró SSM - Population Health 13 (2021) 100735 and more precarious (Lozano & Rentería, 2019), which might contribute (Felgueroso & Jiménez Martín, 2009). These may have had strong im­ to increase their stress and reduce their happiness. Nonetheless, no plications for the employment rates of older workers, and the type of calculations on life expectancy (LE) and happy life expectancy (Hap­ jobs they have accessed, and it should be considered when interpreting pyLE) by main occupational positions are available for Spain. Even our results. though life expectancy is increasing in this country, we do not know yet which of these years gained are spent in a happy state, and which dif­ 2.2. Happiness, occupation and age ferences across gender and occupational groups exist. Population wellbeing has been largely examined using different 2. Background measures of health. In this study, we use happiness as a measure of subjective wellbeing following the World Happiness Report recom­ 2.1. Occupation and life expectancy mendations.1 Happiness has proved to be a relevant indicator that summarizes the degree to which individuals judge the overall quality of Past studies have pointed at the double advantage of higher socio­ their own lives as a whole (Solé-Auró, 2020). It encompasses several economic groups in terms of longer, more active and healthier lives health-related constructs, such as subjective wellbeing, physical activ­ (Arpino & Solé-Auró, 2019; Cambois et al., 2011; Majer et al., 2010). ity, dietary choices, and other biological processes (Steptoe, 2019). Education, income, and occupation have been extensively used to depict Although people may define happiness in their own terms, in general, socioeconomic groups because these indicators show systems of social we mention similar things that make us happy (Easterlin, 2001). stratification in high-income countries, and are associated with health Life circumstances, meaningful relationships, family, work and resources that individuals can access during their lives (Cambois et al., employment status, income, and health conditions have been found to 2020). be associated with happiness (Crimmins & Easterlin, 2000). The Lyu and colleagues (2015) analyzed life expectancy by education, happiest people are characterized by having strong social relationships income, and occupation in Germany and found substantial differences and being able to meet basic needs (Denier & Seligman, 2002). In between socioeconomic groups. Regarding occupation, their results addition, Denier et al. (2018) also found a correlation between subjec­ pointed to a 7-year difference between the lowest and the highest po­ tive happiness and learning new things or choosing how to spend one’s sition, and the gap was larger at the age of 40 than at 65 years old and time. Both characteristics are more common in managerial and profes­ larger among men than women. Cambois et al. (2011) calculated life sional occupations than routine jobs. Furthermore, previous literature in expectancies in France by occupational category after the age of 50. Spain found that political perception, economic situation, and They found that manual workers suffered from a double disadvantage socio-demographic characteristics strongly influenced levels of happi­ having the lowest and unhealthiest life expectancy for both sexes. In ness (Núñez-Barriopedro et al., 2020), as well as climate variables addition, women displayed larger differences in health according to (Cuñado & Pérez, 2013) and educational level (Cuñado & Pérez, 2012). occupation, despite recording smaller gaps in life expectancy. Head et al. In addition, labor market participation has also been studied as a (2019) estimated healthy life expectancy from ages 50 to 75 according factor that correlates with happiness (Xiang et al., 2016; Oswald et al., to occupational groups in Europe, and they found significant gaps be­ 2015; Argyle, 2001). Occupational position, the focus of this paper, is a tween the higher and lower positions. The largest gap was found in multidisciplinary social indicator that consistently reflects an in­ Finland, where both men and women in higher occupational groups dividual’s income, level of education, and lifestyle (Xiang et al., 2016), could expect to live 75 percent of their remaining life in good health. and has been found to correlate with happiness (Oswald et al., 2015). However, this percentage decreased to 47 for men and 50 for women in Most of the literature pointed to social participation and engagement lower categories. Zaniotti et al. (2020) also used occupational groups to provided by employment and the workplace as the main mechanisms assess socioeconomic inequalities in disability-free life expectancy in the through which occupation correlates to happiness. For example, Knabe United States and the United Kingdom. They concluded that in both and Rätzel (2010) found that, especially among men, bringing home countries, people in the lowest occupational group could expect to live their own-earned income boosted their happiness. Argyle (2001) seven to nine fewer years without disability than those in the highest underlined that social relationships at work increased individuals’ group at the age of 50. Finally, Brønnum-Hansen et al. (2020) studied happiness. Xiang et al. (2016) investigated whether occupational posi­ occupational disparities in healthy life expectancy in Denmark and tion influenced happiness. They found that occupations with higher found that high skilled white-collar workers were the ones who were levels of social prestige and power were strongly associated with higher expected to live longer and healthier. levels of happiness. In general, the higher the occupational status was, So far, studies on health and mortality differentials in Spain used the the greater the reported level of happiness. Finally, Steptoe and Lassale educational level as an indicator of socioeconomic status (Reques et al., (2018) investigated various employment factors that affected subjective 2014; Solé-Auró et al., 2020). A recent study in this line covered the wellbeing, measured through life satisfaction, among older people, period from 1960 to 2015 (Permanyer et al., 2018), and it found sig­ including retirement. They did not find any difference in perceived life nificant diverging trends in life expectancy according to educational satisfaction between those who remained in employment and those who level. The gap between low and highly educated was particularly large were retired. However, their data source did not have information on the among men. Regidor et al. (2019) focused on employment status (active type of job. or inactive) over the period 2002–2011 and pointed out that mortality Finally, there is evidence that men tend to record higher levels of rates decreased after the 2008 Great Recession in Spain for men who happiness and life satisfaction than women, although this can vary with were active in the labor market. For active women, mortality rates were age (Solé-Auró & Lozano, 2019; Steptoe & Lassale, 2018). Research on stable before and after the economic crisis. However, for economically happiness levels across the life span has found support for two alterna­ inactive Spaniards, mortality rates decreased throughout the period tive hypotheses. On the one hand, the positivity effect hypothesis sup­ under study. ports that as people get older, they attend more to positive information Moreover, older workers in Spain are characterized by lower levels of and positive memories, therefore a positive appreciation of life. As a education compared to younger cohorts, especially among women. Fe­ result, perceived levels of happiness remain stable or increase across the male educational expansions in Spain did not occur until the 1980s lifespan, despite the physical and cognitive declines linked to age (Ortiz & Rodríguez-Menés, 2015). Since then, labor force participation and employment rates of women have also been increasing (Lozano & Rentería, 2019), and the reduction of the share of low-educated in­ 1 United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network in partnership dividuals at older ages occurred especially since the mid-1990s with Ernesto Illy Foundation. 2 M. Lozano and A. Solé-Auró SSM - Population Health 13 (2021) 100735 (Carstensen et al., 2011). On the other hand, the U-shaped hypothesis Happiness prevalence came from the 2016 ESS. The questionnaire suggests a curvilinear relationship between happiness and age resulting asked respondents to evaluate their level of happiness with the following from a dip in happiness during midlife (35–50), followed by a new rise question: “Taking all things together, how happy would you say you after the late 50s (Blanchflower & Oswald, 2009; Cheng et al., 2014). are?” Responses were coded from 0 to 10, where 0 was extremely un­ In this study, we focus our analysis on those aged 50 and over, and happy and 10 extremely happy. Spain has participated in all waves of hence both hypotheses would predict a positive increase, or a plateau, of the ESS, and the Spanish sample is representative of the entire popula­ happiness levels. Overall, given the associations between occupational tion.3 As no standard criteria on happiness are available on international positions and happiness, we aim to explore which groups are expected to basis, we used three levels of happiness to test for remarkable differences live more years of happiness. Several studies have used life satisfaction in our results according to the cutoff considered4: (1) Moderately and happiness to measure differentials in the length and the quality of happiness, those who rated their happiness at the 7th decile and above; life (Solé-Auró & Lozano, 2019; Veenhoven, 1996; Yang, 2008.), and, (2) Reasonably happy, at the 8th decile or more, and (3) Strongly happy, hence, we use the concept of HappyLE to study population health and at the 9th decile which comprised only those who rated their happiness wellbeing. as nine or ten. 76.2 percent of our sample were comprised between the 7th and the 10th decile, 57.7 percent between 8 and 10, and 28.8 3. Data and method percent were above the 9th decile. In the ESS, we also used ISCO-08 to estimate happiness prevalence 3.1. Data according to main occupation. In this survey, all respondents were asked which was their main occupation, which referred to either their current We used the 2016 Continuous Working Life Sample (CWLS) to or past main occupational position for those who were retired or un­ compute LE and HappyLE for men and women according to main employed at the time of the survey. The original variable in the ESS occupational positions. The CWLS is an administrative dataset that questionnaire contained 10 groups,5 which were later reduced to three contains information on all individuals having a formal relationship main positions: Managerial occupations and professionals (groups 1 to with the Spanish Social Security system. Happiness prevalence came 3), Intermediate Jobs (groups 4 to 7), and Routine Jobs (group 8 and 9).6 from the 2016 wave of the European Social Survey (ESS), which is a The ESS size sample for Spain in 2016 was 1958 respondents, and we cross-national survey that measures attitudes, beliefs, and behavior computed happiness prevalence for those aged 50 and over accounting patterns in Europe. for 970 observations, which was later reduced to 881 after excluding Population and age-specific mortality rates by occupational position those individuals who never had a paid job. were calculated with the CWLS. It is a random sample of around 1.2 Happiness prevalence obtained from the ESS were lately use to million people, which represents 4% of the total Spanish population, and compute abridged life tables by main occupational position using mor­ contains administrative information of individuals who either pay con­ tality information contained in the CWSL for 5,568,433 individuals tributions through taxes or receive social benefits such as unemploy­ (3,327,225 men and 2,2241,218 women) aged 50 and over. We used the ment or retiring pensions. The dataset has a longitudinal design and it three levels of happiness described: Moderately, Reasonably and Strongly contains extensive information on each individual’s working life, happy. namely employment and unemployment spells, occupational category, public pensions, and year of death, if deceased. 3.2. Method In the CWLS, occupational positions were derived from the original variable “Tax Group”, which was reported by the employer. Originally, We estimated LE and HappyLE by main occupational position for the variable had 10 possible options: (1) Engineers, graduates, and se­ men and women in 2016 using population data from the CWLS. Age was nior management, (2) technical engineers, experts and assistants, (3) top-coded in a big group at 80-plus years, and our abridged life tables administrative and workshop managers, (4) non-qualified assistants, (5) closed up to this age. Happiness prevalence and their standard errors by administrative officers, (6) subordinates, (7) administrative assistants, age, sex, and occupation were obtained from the ESS. We used a five- (8) first and second officers, (9) third-party officers and specialists, (10) year age group, except for the final open-ended group of 80-plus. unskilled workers. We used the International Standard Classification of Occupations criteria in its most current version (ISCO-082) to recode original categories into three bigger categories. Groups 1, 2 and 3 were 3 The ESS sample is representative of all persons aged 15 and over residents classified as Managerial and Professional occupations, groups 4 to 7 were within private households in each country participating in the survey. The pooled into Intermediate jobs, and groups 8, 9 and 10 were considered dataset contains design weights to adjust for different selection probabilities, Routine jobs. and post-stratification weights to adjust for sampling error and non-response bias as well as different selection probabilities. In addition, population size We included individuals that were either employed, self-employed, weights were used in combination with the previous ones to aggregate groups. unemployed (receiving unemployment benefits), or retired (receiving 4 In initial phases of the study, we dichotomized the variable happiness to pension benefits) in 2016. Employed (i.e. salaried workers) were calculate our results. We used the happiness distribution to justify our choice, assigned the occupational category they had in 2016. For those cases and set the cut-off at the 7th decile. Those who reported a happiness level below where two, or more, jobs were recorded (2.3% of the employed popu­ 7 were considered unhappy, and values 8–10 were classified as happy. How­ lation), we classified them according to the longest spell and highest ever, we used other cut-offs, at the 8th and 9th decile, in order to test the position. For example, if a 50 years old man had three jobs at the same robustness of our results. The observed patterns of inequality remained similar, time, we classified him into the one that lasted longer. However, if he regardless of the cut-off, and we identified the same advantaged and disad­ had two jobs that lasted the same, we considered the one with the vantaged groups. However, we opted for showing the results for the three levels highest position. “Highest” was determined assuming that managerial because the proportion of time lived happily and unhappily varied considerably positions are higher than intermediate, and intermediate jobs are higher depending on the specific choice. 5 1. Legislators, senior officials and managers. 2. Professionals. 3. Technicians than routine. Those in unemployment or retirement were assigned the and associate professionals. 4. Office clerks. 5. Service workers, shops and longest position they had during their last employment spell. Cases market sales workers. 6. Skilled agricultural and fishery workers. 7. Craft and without labor-related information were dropped from the analysis related trades workers. 8. Plant and machine operators and assemblers. 9. (1.49%). Elementary occupations. 10. Armed forces. 6 We excluded groups 10 (forced army) since it is very heterogeneous, with a diversity of occupations, and therefore it was difficult to be classified in our 2 ISCO-08 was developed by the International Labor Organization (ILO). three groups. 3 M. Lozano and A. Solé-Auró SSM - Population Health 13 (2021) 100735 We used Sullivan’s method (Jagger et al., 2014; Sullivan, 1971) to employment scale at all ages. Those in managerial positions recorded a estimate life expectancy in happy and unhappy states, for the three LE of 35.3 years at the age of 50, whereas men in routine categories levels of happiness previously defined. This method is prevalence-based recorded 24.8 years of LE. This was a 10-year life difference. This gap and we broke down the five-year age group into years lived with and remained stable at the age of 60, and slightly decreased at the age of 70 without happiness. We constructed occupational life tables using CWLS, (8.7-year gap). Men in intermediate positions were expected to live 3 and combined happiness prevalence from ESS with life-table from CWLS years less than managerial workers at all ages, and 7 years more than to estimate HappyLE by type of occupation. Expected years lived with those in routine position at 50 and 60 years old. This decreased to 6 happiness at age ‘x’ were computed by summing the years lived with years after the age of 70. happiness from age x-plus. We computed HappyLE and unhappy LE for We observed a similar pattern among women, and those in mana­ each occupational position and the three levels of happiness. gerial positions recorded the highest LE. The gap between positions at the top and at the bottom accounted for 11 years until the age of 70. 4. Results Then, it increased up to 12 years of difference. Women in intermediate positions were expected to live between 3 and 4 years less than those at Table 1 displays the distribution of occupational positions in our the top of the employment scale, and 8 years more than those at the main study sample.7 The large majority of men aged from 50 to 64 were bottom. Routine female workers recorded the lowest LE at all ages. in intermediate (45.5%) and routine (39%) positions, and only 15.4 Finally, our interest lies in examining the quality of life using percent had a managerial or professional job. A similar distribution was happiness as a subjective indicator of wellbeing among different occu­ found among older workers over 65 years old. Among women, only a pational groups. Figs. 2 and 3 show LE estimates decomposed into the few of them at the ages of 50–64 (6.4%), and at 65 years old and over number of years lived in happy states (HappyLE) by main occupational (1.4%) were in managerial positions. The vast majority of women were position according to three studied levels of happiness. Fig. 2 shows found in the two other groups. results for men at the ages of 50, 60, and 70, and Fig. 3 displays the Fig. 1 shows the prevalence of happiness according to main occu­ estimates for women. To ease the comparison, we will only report the pational position in five-year groups for men and women. We calculated percentage of total LE lived happily by occupational position, displayed the smoothed age-specific prevalence of happiness to show the change in at the top of each bar in the figures. the three occupational groups. Happiness is displayed at the 9th decile At all ages, men in intermediate positions were the ones who could (Strongly happy), the 8th (Reasonably), and at the 7th (Moderately). expect to live a higher percentage of their remaining life being happy, Regarding strongly happy, around 40 percent of men in intermediate regardless of the happiness decile. For example, at 50 years old, men positions reported being happy at all ages. Among women, 30 percent of working in intermediate positions recorded 42.5 percent of their those in managerial positions reported being strongly happy, while only remaining life to be strongly happy, 66.5 percent reasonably happy and 15 percent in intermediate categories were strongly happy. However, 89.7 percent moderately happy. These percentages were 32.2, 64.5, and this was only for women aged between 50 and 64. After 65 years old, 84.2 for managerial positions, and 34.9, 60.2, and 76.5 percent for male strongly happy women were those women in intermediate positions, routine workers. When measuring happiness at the 9th decile, mana­ with a peak around 35 percent between the ages of 75–79. gerial men at 50 years old recoded the lowest percentage of life being When we measure happiness at the 8th decile, on average between strongly happy. These patterns were similar at older ages. In addition, 60 and 70 percent of men reported being reasonably happy, and this was men in intermediate positions experienced an increase in the percentage between 50 and 65 percent among women. Managerial men were the of life being happy between the ages of 50 and 60. This happened for the happiest until the age of 75. After that age, more men in intermediate three deciles of happiness. Finally, at 70 years old, those who had mainly positions reported being reasonably happy than the two other occupa­ worked in routine jobs increased their percentage of HappyLE when tional groups. A larger proportion of women in intermediate positions considering reasonable and moderate happiness, but this percentage also reported being reasonably happy compared to the other occupa­ decreased when considering strong happiness. On the other hand, those tional groups. who had mainly worked in managerial positions experienced a decline Finally, when considering moderate levels of happiness, at the 7th in the percentage of the remaining life being reasonably and moderately decile, the majority of men and women at all ages reported being happy. happy, and it slightly increased (0.3%) when measuring happiness at the For both sexes, those in managerial and intermediate positions showed 9th decile. an advantage over routine workers. Among women, the percentages of HappyLE were similar for LE by occupation and gender is displayed in Table 2. We found managerial and intermediate positions when measuring happiness at the remarkable differences when stratifying LE according to main occupa­ 7th decile. At all ages, these women could expect to live more than 80 tional position. Among males, there was a notable gap in LE between percent of their lives moderately happy. This was remarkably lower for those occupational positions at the top and those at the bottom of the routine jobs. If we turn to reasonably happy, women in intermediate position were advantaged at all ages. However, if we considered strong Table 1 happiness, women in managerial positions were the ones who recorded Distribution of occupational positions by age and gender in the main study a higher percentage of their remaining life being happy. At the 9th sample (%). decile, women in managerial positions were also the only ones for whom Occupation Age 50-64 Age 65 and over the percentage of HappyLE increased with age. Women in intermediate positions, on the other hand, experienced an increase when measuring Men Women Men Women happiness at the 8th and 7th decile. Finally, women in routine jobs were Managerial 15.41 6.36 17.71 1.37 the most disadvantaged group regardless of the happiness decile, but Intermediate 45.54 50.29 39.34 42.17 especially when considering moderate happiness. In this case, the per­ Routine 39.05 43.35 42.95 56.45 Total 100 100 100 100 centage of HappyLE was around 16 points percent lower than the other two positions at the age of 50, and the gap increased with age. At 70 Source: 2016 Continuous Working Life Sample (CWSL) years old, women who had mainly worked in routine jobs could expect to live 57.1 percent of their life moderately happy, while this was 83.5 and 92.1 percent for those who had worked in managerial and inter­ mediate positions respectively. 7 A table displaying the distribution of occupational position in the ESS can Finally, Table 3 reports the men-women difference in the percentage be found in the Supplementary materials. of HappyLE according to occupation and happiness decile. Although this 4 M. Lozano and A. Solé-Auró SSM - Population Health 13 (2021) 100735 Fig. 1. Smoothed age-specific prevalence of happiness by gender and occupation, Spain 2016 Source: European Social Survey. 2016 Spanish sample. Table 2 Life expectancy by occupational position, age and gender, Spain 2016. Men Women Managerial Intermediate Routine Managerial Intermediate Routine Age 50 35.3 32.0 24.8 39.7 36.6 28.5 Age 60 25.3 22.1 15.0 29.8 26.7 18.6 Age 70 15.7 13.0 7.0 21.3 17.2 8.7 Source: 2016 Continuous Working Life Sample (CWSL). information was also available in Figs. 2 and 3, the table eases the here. They were the ones at a greater disadvantage, not only compared interpretation of the results. to females in the other two groups, but also compared to men in all When measuring happiness at the 9th decile, managerial women had groups. an advantage over men that increased with age. However, in the highest occupational position, the proportion of females was very small (see 5. Conclusion and discussion Table 1) at all ages, but particularly after 65 years old. Hence, these women were a very selective group. For the other two occupational This paper aimed to study occupational differences in longevity and positions, where most of our sample is found, men had an advantage in wellbeing among older populations. To do so, we studied inequalities in the percentage of the remaining life being strongly happy. Particularly, LE and HappyLE by main occupational position and gender. For Spain, men at the age of 70 who had mainly worked in intermediate positions this is the first work estimating HappyLE according to occupation. could expect to live strongly happy 32.8 percent more than women in Regarding the gender gap in LE, our results highlighted that Spanish the same group. women could expect to live longer LE than men, regardless of the If we consider happiness at the 8th decile, men were advantaged over occupational position. This goes in line with past findings. Head et al. women regardless of the occupational position. At the 7th decile, women (2019) studied healthy LE by occupation in the UK, France, and Finland, seemed to have a slight advantage when working in managerial posi­ and Cambois et al. (2011) estimated it for France. Both studies found tions, however, as we already mentioned, these women accounted for that women had higher LE than men, and that those in higher occupa­ less than 7 percent of our sample. Females in routine positions were tional groups had the highest LE. In addition, we also found larger dif­ expected to live a lower percentage of their life being happy than their ferences between occupational groups among women than men. The gap male counterparts either when considering reasonably or moderately between managerial and routine jobs was 10 years for men and 11 years happy. These women were the ones who performed worse in all our for women at the age of 50. This gap decreased after retirement among measures, and they accounted for half of our female sample, showing the men but increased among women. At the age of 70, the gap was 8.7 years magnitude of the problem. Women in lower occupational positions lived for men and 12.6 for women. This interesting finding can be explained shorter and recorded unhappier levels than the rest of the groups studied by the demographic composition of the cohorts studied, and gender 5 M. Lozano and A. Solé-Auró SSM - Population Health 13 (2021) 100735 Fig. 2. Years of Life Expectancy and Proportion of total Life Expectancy (%) spent in happy state according to occupational position, age, gender and happiness level. among MEN Source: 2016 CWSL and ESS, 2016 Spanish Sample. inequalities in the labor market. First, female generations in Spain aged disabilities are not into employment (Shah, 2009). In our results, we 50-plus had lower levels of education compared to men and were mostly could argue that those in managerial positions were the ones with better employed in routine jobs. Women in intermediate and managerial jobs health, which had allowed them to access supervising roles in the first were fewer and more selected since they had probably enjoyed higher place. This could also explain the differences we found between occu­ levels of wellbeing during their working life, which translated into a pational categories, assuming the idea that there is a selection effect of longer LE after retirement. those with poor health into lower occupational positions. Regarding years of happiness, they varied depending on the decile at Finally, we did not observe relevant variations of HappyLE with age. which we measure it. Hence, the proportion of time gained in happy As expected, happiness seemed to remain stable across the age range we states was sensitive to the specific measure used. However, regardless of considered. However, we observed remarkable differences by gender. the specific cutoff, the most disadvantaged groups in terms of HappyLE Women reported lower levels of happiness regardless of the decile were women in routine jobs. In addition, the difference in the percent­ measured. It is worth mentioning that not only occupation is associated age of years lived happily between females in routine positions with happiness. Social relationships, family life, and marriage play an compared to the other groups increased with age. Contrary to Xiang important role (Diener & Diener McGavran, 2008). Nonetheless, our et al. (2016), who found that those in higher occupational position re­ findings showed that even though women were expected to live longer ported higher levels of happiness, we observed that those in interme­ lives than men, these gains in life expectancy were not translated into a diate positions could expect to live a larger proportion of life in a happy higher percentage of life in a happy state, regardless of the level of state compared to those in managerial positions. Therefore, being in happiness used. Causes of unhappiness among women by occupational managerial positions did not necessarily translate into a higher per­ category may include work-family conflict and caring responsibilities. centage of life in a happy state and this finding could be explained by the Before retiring, women tend to be responsible for the bulk of domestic health-specific outcomes of highly-skilled occupations such as long work at home, experiencing a double shift (Baxter & Tai, 2016), and working hours or stress associated with supervisory roles. This result once in retirement, past studies showed that an important number of complements previous research in Spain that explored differences in women keep providing care for grandchildren or their own partners subjective well-being according to education (Solé-Auró et al., 2020; (Lumsdaine & Vermeer, 2015) which perpetuates sex-roles in later life. Solé-Auró & Lozano, 2019). These studies have found that the highly Unfortunately, we were not able to test this relationship with our data. educated groups consistently recorded a higher percentage of their lives In addition, our study has some limitations. The CWLS do not gather feeling satisfied and happy. Nonetheless, past research has shown that information on those who did not have a formal relationship with the those in lower occupational position are more vulnerable to stress and Social Security System, and therefore we cannot measure workers in the burnout (Tsutsumi et al., 2011), which goes in line with our findings informal economy, or those who never worked or received any type of because we found that, overall, those in routine jobs were expected to contributory pension. In addition, civil servants are also not included, live fewer years in a happy state. This result may be also linked to the and this group (15.3% of the total active population) may be very Healthy Worker Effect where workers usually exhibit lower overall death advantaged in their HappyLE because, in general, public employment rates than the general population because those with chronic illnesses or offers better working conditions, family-friendly working environments, 6 M. Lozano and A. Solé-Auró SSM - Population Health 13 (2021) 100735 Fig. 3. Years of Life Expectancy and Proportion of total Life Expectancy (%) spent in happy state according to occupational position, age, gender and happiness level among WOMEN Source: 2016 CWSL and ESS, 2016 Spanish Sample. Table 3 Men-Women difference in the Proportion of total life Expectancy spent happy according to happiness level and occupational position, Spain 2016 (%). Strongly Happy Reasonably Happy Moderately Happy Age Manag Interm. Routine Manag. Interm. Routine Manag. Interm. Routine 50 -2.9 17.5 8.7 8.8 4.4 8.2 0.6 4.5 8.6 60 -3.6 20.2 12.2 11.7 6.1 15.6 -1.7 0.0 13.4 70 -10.4 32.8 11.8 9.4 7.6 18.8 -6.4 -4.2 24.7 Note: “Manag.” refers to managerial occupation position; “Interm.” refers to intermediate occupation position. Source: 2016 Continuous Working Life Sample (CWSL) and European Social Survey, 2016 Spanish Sample and more secure job contracts. Moreover, the ESS is a household survey women should be further explored, and we suggest that work-life im­ that may have excluded more people of low socioeconomic status with balances and caring responsibilities need to be addressed when studying low levels of wellbeing, thereby artificially lowering the prevalence of inequalities in longevity. Third, based on our findings, it could be argued those who report low happiness. Moreover, the happiness prevalence that extending the statutory retirement age being the age of 65 would be among older workers in Spain, calculated using the ESS, has a limited especially detrimental for women’s health and happiness in lower number of observations (881), which is an additional limitation to our occupational position. However, past studies have found mixed results results. Future research with higher sample sizes is needed to better on the effects of retirement on health. Some found improvements in estimate HappyLE. Nonetheless, our results are consistent with previous health after exiting the labor market (Eibich, 2015; Insler, 2015), while literature, pointing at the double disadvantage in terms of LE and others found that retirement increases the risk of certain diseases, such Healthy LE for the lower occupation groups (Head et al., 2019) and as cardiovascular illnesses (Behncke, 2012), or affects mental health lower levels of well-being among women in Spain (Solé & Lozano, (Heller-Sahlgren, 2012). 2019). Our findings suggest that those at higher occupational position had Finally, even though our data is limited to the Spanish case, several longer and happier lives, but those at the bottom suffered from a double conclusions can be drawn beyond this particular context. First, health disadvantage living shorter and unhappier lives. Even tough, there is a disadvantage of routine and manual occupations found in the past (i.e. large heterogeneity that can explain the relationship between retirement Cambois et al., 2011; Head et al., 2019) remains when studying happi­ and wellbeing (Amorim & França, 2019), we argue that, in the light of ness. These workers have a lower life expectancy and they will live fewer our findings, postponing the average age at retirement for all occupa­ years in happiness as well. Hence, sources of socioeconomic disadvan­ tional groups, without considering differences in LE, would be detri­ tages seem to pile up. Second, women consistently live longer lives than mental to those who are already disadvantaged. Hence, increases in the men and they seem to be less happy. Causes of unhappiness among length of working lives should be accompanied by the growth of 7 M. Lozano and A. 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What makes people happy? A developmental approach to the literature on family relationships and well-being. In satisfied the criteria for authorship but are not listed. We further confirm M. Eid, & R. J. Larsen (Eds.), The science of subjective well-being. Guilford Press. that the order of authors listed in the manuscript has been approved by Duncan, G. J., Daly, M. C., McDonough, P., & Williams, D. R. (2002). Optimal indicators all of us. We understand that the Corresponding Author is the sole of socioeconomic status for health research. American Journal of Public Health, 92(7), 1151–1157. contact for the Editorial process. She is responsible for communicating Easterlin, R. A. (2001). Income and happiness: Towards a unified theory. The Economic with the other authors about progress, submissions of revisions and final Journal, 111(473), 465–484. approval of proofs Signed by all authors as follows: Eibich, P. (2015). 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