The Chinese government plans to raise the national retirement age, according to a top pensions official.
Human Resources and Social Security deputy minister Hu Xiaoyi told Xinhua on Tuesday that developing problems, such as an ageing population and shrinking labour force, mean the retirement age must be progressively risen. China has been considering increasing the retirement age since 2008 to cope with these issues.
The current retirement age is 60 for men and 50 for women (55 for female officials) – ages defined by policies that have been in place since the 1950s. According to Hu, actual retirement age for both sexes is now 54 years old. "This is obviously too low," he said. “With the improvement of working conditions, the average intensity of labour is much lower now."
China's working population, (people aged between 15 and 59 years old) dropped for the first time last year by 3.45 million. This is problematic as cheap labour costs have been partly attributed to China’s growth in recent years, according to Xinhua.
Data shows that if retirement age were to be extended by a year the pension fund could increase by 4 billion yuan ($659 million).
Hu said low retirement age was also not good for young and middle-aged people’s ambitions. Renmin University of China professor Zheng Gongcheng said at a seminar last month that an earlier retirement age for women deprives them of work rights and development opportunities.
A reform proposal released in November emphasised China’s plans to progressively raise the retirement age in steps. The policy would be carried out slowly, with white-collar workers as the first group affected and no changes to the age made for workers in physically difficult positions.
In a survey jointly conducted by China Youth Daily and Sohu in September nearly 95 per cent of over 25,000 online respondents (mostly aged between 24 and 53) opposed any increase to the retirement age. 91 per cent said that they were unwilling to work until 65.
Hu said the public must first have several years notice. There is currently no timetable for the implementation of the policy.
[Image via Flickr]
0 User Comments