The Chinese are also raising the retirement age: it will be 63 for men and 55 for women.
|Avec l’allongement de la durée de vie, un départ plus tôt à la retraite. MAXPPP – LONG WEI
Alors que la population vieillit et que la démographie s’effondre, le Parlement chinois recule l’âge de départ à la retraite.
The National People's Congress, China's parliament, has passed a bill that will raise the legal retirement age from January 1, 2025.
The bill is part of a broader package of reforms designed to adapt China to slowing economic growth, an aging population and a shrinking workforce after decades of a one-child policy that was abandoned in the mid-2010s.
The retirement age for men will be raised to 63 from January 1, according to China news.
The retirement age for women working in the tertiary sector will be 58 from 2025 and 55 for others.
Number of annuities increased to 20 years
As of January 1, 2030, the number of annuities required to receive a retirement pension will be increased from 15 years to 20 years. Employees who have reached their annuity quota will be able to claim their retirement rights more flexibly and early.
Currently, the legal minimum retirement age in China is 50 for women (55 in the tertiary sector) and 60 for men, except for exceptions for certain employees. Life expectancy in China has increased from around 44 years in 1960 to 78 years in 2021 and is expected to exceed 80 years by 2050.
This demographic change, combined with the decline in the birth rate, is undermining the pension system at a time when many Chinese provinces are already suffering from significant budget deficits. The increase in the retirement age could, however, be poorly received by some of the population.
Hundreds of thousands of Chinese people have reacted on social networks to the information given by Xinhua, many of them fearing that such a reform would only increase the number of unemployed in an economy already weakened by a shortage of job offers.