Good Time, Bad Time: Socioeconomic Status, Time Scarcity, and Well-Being in Retirement

Abstract

We tend to think of retirement as a great equalizer when it comes to relief from the pernicious time scarcity characterizing the lives of many workers. Puzzlingly, this is not entirely the case. Using data from the MTUS in combination with long-term participant observation and in-depth interviews, this article shows that socioeconomic characteristics are important determinants of retiree time scarcity. Contextual disadvantage influences well-being outcomes via time exchanges that are forged by both neighborhood and peer network characteristics. The socioeconomic status–based time projects of surviving and thriving undergirding the experience of time scarcity lead to divergent strategies of action and differing consequences for well-being. For the advantaged, the experience of time scarcity is protective for well-being in later life, as it emerges from managing a relative abundance of choices. For the disadvantaged, later life experience of time scarcity is shaped by cumulative inequality, further exacerbating inequalities in well-being.