As of: March 16, 2024, 2:10 p.m
By: Marcus Giebel
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Germany is being presented with a new pension package.
A trade association is calling for further reforms and longer working lives.
Berlin - With the pension package II, the traffic light coalition has tackled an issue that previous governments generally preferred to stay away from.
Because there is definitely a risk of getting burned.
There has already been heavy criticism of Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) and Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD), the leading figures behind the project, for its implementation - especially the plan with the so-called stock pension.
Pension in Germany: Wholesale President wants longer working hours
The Federal Association of Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA) is anything but satisfied with the status quo when it comes to pensions.
Its president Dr.
In a statement, Dirk Jandura calls for the retirement age to be raised even further: “We need bold solutions.
And we have to face the realities.
People should not retire earlier, but rather later.”
The standard age limit is currently 67 for those born in 1964.
However, citizens may be able to retire after just 35 years of insurance, albeit with deductions.
In particular, the “pension at 63”, which allows you to retire without any deductions after 45 years of insurance, is becoming increasingly popular, and many boomers are saying goodbye to the labor market early.
This means that demographic change is even more severe than it already is.
Because Germany relies on a pension system based on a pay-as-you-go system.
The younger generations finance the pensions of retired seniors.
The Federal Republic is getting closer and closer to the point at which a contributor has to pay for a pensioner.
Sees difficult times ahead for Germany: Wholesale President Dirk Jandura (l.) is thinking about the pension system.
© picture alliance/dpa/BGA, IMAGO / imagebroker
Head of the wholesale association against pension at 63: “We can’t afford it”
Jandura therefore believes it is “urgently necessary to make pensions sustainable.
With the current demographic change, this is a Herculean task.” After all, he praises the stock pension as a “step in the right direction, towards intergenerational equity.”
However, further “necessary structural reforms” would have to be implemented.
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Pensions would already be subsidized by 81 billion euros from the federal budget, and life expectancy is increasing.
For Jandura it is clear: “Therefore there should be no incentives to shorten the period of employment subject to contributions.
We cannot afford early retirement – like the tax-free pension from the age of 63.”
Longer working hours in Germany?
“Not an attractive demand, but the reality”
Rather, it is about creating “incentives for more work”: “We have to work more, in the week, in the year, in our lives.” For some time now, there has been increasing discussion about shortening weekly working hours, for example to 35 hours or four days .
Business associations and the FDP are fighting against it.
According to Jandura, “We know that we cannot avoid working longer hours.
This is not an attractive demand and a 'no-go' for many political parties.
But that's the reality." The BGA boss criticizes: "The state is already investing a lot of money into pensions, companies already have very high non-wage labor costs, which are another factor that has a negative impact on our competitiveness."
That sounds like a vicious circle.
Which Germany as a whole can burn its fingers too.
(mg)