Due to an aging population, Mainland China plans to delay the retirement age. | WPN World People News

Delaying retirement has become a highly focused issue recently as China steps into an aging society. On the eve of the 2024 National People's Congress in mainland China, coupled with the recently published 'China Pension Development Report 2023', the necessity of delaying retirement policy is highlighted while calculating the pension replacement rate.

The age node for delaying retirement and how to implement the gradual delay retirement plan are closely related to everyone. The current statutory retirement age in mainland China is 60 for male workers, 55 for female cadres, and 50 for female workers. However, the average life expectancy in China has already increased from 43.7 years in 1960 to 77.9 years in 2020. Therefore, mainland experts suggest that the retirement age might be delayed to 65, and the retirement age for men and women will tend to be the same.

According to the data from the seventh national census, the population over 60 years old in China is about 264 million, accounting for 18.70%. Compared with 2010, the elderly population has risen by 5.44 percentage points.

The policy of delaying retirement can not only cope with the risk of population aging and social pension insurance income not covering expenses, maintain the effective choice of intergenerational policy fairness, but also shorten the years of workers receiving pensions, thereby reducing fund expenditures.