China announces sharp rise in retirement age – media

The hike of up to five years is reportedly aimed at addressing the pressure from the country’s aging population

The Chinese government has approved a plan to raise the retirement age in an effort to address the challenge of an aging population, according to local media reports. The country’s current retirement ages are among the lowest in the world.

The new policy was passed on Friday by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. The change, which will take place over 15 years starting in January, will raise the retirement age for men from the current 60 to 63. The threshold for female office workers’ will be raised from 55 to 58, while female blue-collar workers, who could previously retire aged 50, will now have to wait until 55.

The hike is aimed at “adapting to the new situation of demographic development in China, and fully developing and utilizing human resources,” the committee was quoted as saying.

According to Reuters, China’s minister of human resources and social security, Wang Xiaoping, said on Friday that the change would be implemented on a flexible and voluntary basis, noting that employees will have the option of retiring earlier or extending retirement for a period of up to three years.

The adjustment of the retirement age is China’s first since 1978. It is based on longer average life expectancy, extended years of schooling, the current population structure, and improving healthcare conditions, the committee reportedly said.

Life expectancy in China has risen to 78 as of 2023, up from about 44 in 1960. It is projected to exceed 80 by 2050.

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Policymakers have long been considering changing the retirement age, but previous attempts were met with public opposition.

Meanwhile, the move could help the economy by countering the impact of a shrinking workforce, according to reports. Official statistics show the number of working-age people (between 16 and 59) in the country decreased by 40 million in just over a decade, to 879 million in 2020.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences has reportedly warned that the country’s pension system could run out of money by 2035. The raising of the retirement age could relieve some that pressure by delaying payouts, some media reports claimed.

“This is happening everywhere,” Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, told AP. “But in China with its large elderly population, the challenge is much larger,” he stressed.