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Seniors in Germany: Specialists who have long been in demand in many places
Photo: Martin Wagner / IMAGO
Against the long-term decline in income from pension insurance in Germany, head of the overall metal industry, Stefan Wolf, has spoken out in favor of gradually raising the retirement age to 70.
"If you look at the demographic development and the burden on the social security and pension funds, then the reserves have been used up," said the head of the employers' association, who also manages a large company with the automotive supplier ElringKlinger, to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
»We will have to work longer and harder.«
“We will gradually have to go up to the retirement age of 70 – also because people are living longer,” said the head of Gesamtmetall.
Otherwise the system will no longer be financially viable in the medium term.
Wolf had already discussed raising the retirement age to 70 a year ago.
Alternative longer weekly working hours?
However, the demand was not reflected in the coalition agreement of the traffic light partners, including Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil (SPD) rejects it.
In May, after a push by economists to retire at 70, he said: “We have agreed in the coalition that we will not increase the statutory retirement age.
And nothing will change that.«
The German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) promptly and decisively rejected Wolf's current demand.
"It's nothing more than a pension cut with an announcement," said DGB board member Anja Piel.
Many employees would already no longer be able to “stay healthy until retirement”.
Long-term work is not an option for those who work in care, construction or factories.
Those who work hard have a "significantly lower life expectancy" anyway and therefore receive a shorter pension, according to Piel.
The financing of the pension is a question of distribution.
Even with an aging society, the federal government has a responsibility to “promise a good and adequate pension” – without higher age limits or shorter pensions.
An important reason for the poor situation of the pension system is the concentrated retirement of the baby boomer cohorts from working life.
However, simply letting them and future generations work longer will be difficult.
It is true that older people, especially the highly qualified, are more and more often employed when they reach retirement age, but many baby boomers prefer to leave the workforce sooner rather than later.
In its current form, the pay-as-you-go pension system is increasingly reaching its limits.
Due to the aging of society, there are too many recipients and few contributors when it comes to pensions.
According to the current legal situation, the age limit for the pension will be gradually raised from 65 to 67 years without deductions until 2029.
According to experts, however, this will not be enough to permanently secure the financing of the pension.
The pension insurance had therefore recently shown itself open to a new debate about longer working.
The director of the employer-related Institute of German Economics (IW), Michael Hüther, had recently proposed at least an extension of the standard working time to 42 hours per week in view of the hardened political fronts when the regular retirement age was raised.
"The hours are paid, of course - it's not about taking wage cuts through the back door," he said.
"If you add that up, you would compensate for the demographically induced loss of work volume by 2030."
apr/dpa
