The French government on Tuesday suggested raising the country’s legal retirement age from the current 62 to 64 by 2030 amid strikes by labour groups.
The proposal was made public by French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, who said that raising the pension age will keep the system from imploding under the strain of deficits.
‘It would be reckless to allow these deficits to increase. It would surely result in a significant increase in taxes, a decrease in pensions, and a threat to our pension system,’ Bonne stated.
‘I’m very aware that making changes to our retirement system is causing anxiety and fears among French people.’
Notably, French workers often retire far earlier than their counterparts from the rest of the European Union (EU). The direct repercussion is that the French exchequer has to foot a bigger pension bill than most countries in the bloc.
In Germany, Denmark and Italy, the legal retirement age is 67 while it remains 66 in Spain and the United Kingdom. On average, workers in France retire at 62 years of age, according to EU data from 2019.
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