It is a certainty: if the government manages to carry out its pension reform project, the French will have to work a little longer.
Without knowing, at this hour, if it will be until 64 or 65 years.
For the executive, these additional years will make it possible to finance the pay-as-you-go system, structurally in deficit, without that, for several decades.
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Today, in fact, the legal retirement age remains fixed at 62 years since the 2010 reform. From this age, an individual can stop working whenever he wishes.
It is also possible to leave earlier, in certain special cases, for example thanks to the so-called “
long career
” scheme or in the event of incapacitating illness.
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Be careful though, having reached the legal age does not mean that you can receive a full pension: you will need to have contributed for a certain number of quarters, or leave at 67.
Otherwise, the pension is reduced by a discount.
The age of the full rate, which therefore depends on the contribution period, now depends on the generations: today, people born until 1957 must have worked 166 quarters, and those born from 1973 must have contributed 172 quarters, for example.
A different effective age depending on the plans
Beyond the legal age, thus, the specificities of the different pension schemes, the duration of contributions according to the generations and the age of first employment therefore modify the moment when the French actually leave, on average.
The indicator to follow is therefore rather the one measuring the average cyclical retirement age: this looks at “
the average retirement age for all retirees over a given period
”.
In fact, this age decreased for several decades, from 1975 to 2009, recalls the Pensions Orientation Council (COR).
A dynamic explained by the proliferation of systems allowing
people to retire “earlier and earlier
”.
Then, subsequently, the governments acted on the age lever, gradually delaying it, but with a lag: "
The rather significant recourse to early departures between 2004 and 2008 delayed the consequences of these reforms on the 'effective retirement age
', notes the COR in its latest report.
Age has therefore been increasing for a decade: all schemes combined, including that of non-salaried workers and special schemes, it reached 62.3 years in 2020, with a small difference between men and women.
Unsurprisingly, there are also significant disparities depending on the situation: in the private sector, for example, the effective age was established, on the same date, at 62.9 years.
Conversely, “
nearly 80% of the military had retired before the age of 57
”, cites the COR as an example.
The special schemes also allow their beneficiaries to retire much earlier: despite an increase in recent years, “
they remain significantly below 60 years old (around 58 years old for the CNIEG or the SNCF and 56 years old for the RATP , for example) and below the retirement ages of employees in the private sector
”, specifies the COR.
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Despite recent increases, France also lags behind its European neighbors in terms of effective retirement age.
An argument regularly put forward by the executive to justify its pension reform: “
Today, on average in France, we do not stop working at 62
”, assured Emmanuel Macron during the presidential campaign.
In a note, the OFCE thus compared the average ages of departure between fourteen European countries: France is at the back of the pack, at the same level as Austria.
We thus retire later in … twelve nations, the top three being made up of the Netherlands – 64.9 years old –, Sweden – 65 years old – and Italy – 65.5 years old.
“
In the case of France, we are around 62.3 years old and we are indeed among the last
”, analyzed in our columns last April the adviser to the Institut Montaigne, Bertrand Martinot.
By raising the legal age, the government could give a boost to these indicators, forcing the French to work a little longer.
