Poll: Over half oppose raising retirement age

According to a recent poll, just over half of the participants said they have issues with the possibility of increasing China's retirement age.

54 percent of the 3,000 surveyed said they are against raising the retirement age, which is 60 for men, 55 for women cadres and 50 for women workers. About 26 percent supported the change, while the remaining 20 percent found it "difficult to answer".

The poll was conducted by the Canton Public Opinion Research Center, one of China's largest public opinion soliciting agencies, in April. The results were released on June 3.

Sixty percent felt the retirement age should remain as it is, 17 percent felt the threshold should be lowered, while only 10 percent said they wanted to push back the retirement age by a few years, according to the survey.

Reasons given for an earlier retirement age include "enjoying life" (45%), "hard work" (37%) and "making way for the younger" (34%).

Over the past few years the central government has cautiously issued signals of possibly postponing the retirement age. The growing burden of pensions caused by an aging population has been the biggest reason as speculated by experts.

The double standard China currently utilizes where those who retire from government agencies and public institutions receive pensions which are two or three times more than those who retire from "ordinary enterprises", has also been questioned and objected to by many people within China's workforce.

In what was the latest indicator on this issue, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said in late April that it will "prudently study" whether to push back the retirement age, as it is a complicated social policy that needs to be addressed based on demographic structure changes, employment situations and the development of China's social security system.