Expert suggests to postpone the retirement age
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2006-02-06 15:32

An expert with Tsinghua University recently suggested to postpone the mandatory retirement age by a few years, saying this would help mitigate the pressure on the shortage of pension fund.

Professor Hu Angang, in an interview with China News Service, said the average life span of Chinese has risen to 71 from 49 in 1950, an increase of more than 20 years. Therefore, he suggested to appropriately delay the age to retire, to 63 or 65 for both sexes, and to set no age limit for employees in private businesses.

The current retirement age is 60 for men, and 50 to 55 for women, depending on their professions.

This could start with professionals, administrative staff and civil servants, and then apply to other sectors, Hu said. This could "kill two birds by one stone." On one hand, it could lower the total number of retirees and the sum of pension. On the other hand, a long working time could help increase the total sum of social wealth.

At present, 3.5 staff in active service would have to support one retiree on average, but some 20 years ago, the burden was much lighter, about 10 active staff supporting one retiree. While the pension reform has been in place for more than 10 years and the nation has made significant improvement, majority of the aged is still not entitled to pension fund and has to live on their savings or their children's support.

Therefore, he said, postponing the retirement age is helpful in relieving the financial burden to support the old.

In the year 2020, the population of those aged 60 or above will account for 20% of the national population, and by 2050, the percentage will jump to about 33%. Such a huge aging population will become a major burden for the economic development, said Hu.

However, Zheng Silin, minister of labor and social security said recently that the government has no plan to postpone the retirement age yet.

With the improving living standards and a longer life expectancy, many countries are postponing their retirement age, but this should be a slow process. Zheng said China will not change its retirement age, at least for now.