Hong Kong. China’s top legislature has approved a proposal to raise the country’s retirement age, the official Xinhua news agency reported Friday, in an early review of decades-old laws to cope with economic pressure from a shrinking workforce.
The retirement age in China is currently one of the lowest in the world.
The reform was seen as urgent as life expectancy in China has risen to 78 years in 2021 from 44 years in 1960 and is projected to exceed 80 years by 2050. At the same time, the working population needed to support the elderly is declining.
The retirement age will rise from 60 to 63 for men and from 55 to 58 for women. For manual workers, it will rise from 50 to 55.
The changes will come into effect on January 1, 2025 and will apply for 15 years.
Extending working life would ease pressure on pension budgets, when many Chinese provinces are running large deficits. But delaying pension payments and forcing older workers to stay in their jobs longer may not be welcomed.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to social media after Xinhua reported that top Chinese lawmakers discussed the issue on Sept. 10.
With this measure, China is moving closer to its regional neighbours, Japan and South Korea, where pensions can only be collected at the age of 65 and 63, respectively.
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– 2024-09-18 16:41:58
