Employer'S Responsibility in the Context of Company Occupational Pension Schemes in the Czech Republic and Germany

To prevent old age poverty in the Czech Republic and Germany, this paper contributes tothe debate on increasing the employer participation rate in the occupational pension schemes on offer.As such, we analyze whether, in recent years, employers have acted in accordance with their corporatesocial responsibility by offering occupational pension schemes and adequately informing theiremployees. Design/methodology/approach: The basis of this research was a cross-sectional data set consistingof three independent questionnaires which addressed employers and their employees. Therandomization applied ensures a comparative study between employers and employees. Findings: The survey highlights a large information asymmetry between the employers and theemployees. The employers act responsibly by, in general, providing occupational pension plans,although the participation rate is low. The employers also make use of extensive informationcampaigns on the subject. Nevertheless, the employees in the Czech Republic remain largelyuninformed, with the situation in Germany only slightly better. Research/practical implications: The information asymmetries suggest that the employers' existinginformation strategies fail to provide their employees with sufficient financial knowledge. Thisasymmetry should be addressed by a two-fold strategy; improving the training of employees abouttheir financial situation and by using automatic enrollment with the possibility of opting out. Originality/value: Based on a cross-sectional study, the predominant information asymmetries wereidentified as the major practical problems in both the Czech Republic and in Germany. This studycontributes to the growing literature by focusing on the German and Czech labor markets with regardto an employer's corporate social responsibility.