Question: When do scientists retire?

Katie Fala answered on 12 Nov 2019:

In theory at the same age as people with different careers. In practice though, I suspect that many scientists might end up needing to work longer before retirement. Working contracts in academic research are quite often short (e.g. 1-3 years long) and not guaranteed to be renewed, which means that it might take you longer to earn enough PRSI stamps to get the state pension. To speak personally, I have not earned any PRSI stamps since going back to college in 2014 nor can I during my PhD. As you need stamps in order to get your pension, it probably means that I will need to work 8 years more than most people before retiring (although this would not apply if you went straight from school to college and PhD). Also, Ireland could always change it’s employment and taxation laws to be more protective of early career researchers, such as Denmark. I will say that at least my work is interesting though!