In heated discussion, China to put postponing retirement age on agenda

Huang Lijun, a retired cultural relics repairer at the China National Silk Museum, repairs a piece of colored silk cloth at the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing on September 7, 2020.

Retiree Li Ailing, 56, was glad that China's future policy of delaying retirement won't cover her.

Li retired in September 2019 at the age of 55 from the position of client manager at a bank in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province. She met the legal retirement age requirement - the minimum statutory retirement age is 60 for men and 55 for women (50 if engaged in physical work) in China.

The high pressure of working in bank made Li not want to work one more day. "I had been working hard in my position for half my life," she told the Global Times. "Now I want to travel and enjoy life as soon as possible."

After years of heated discussion, China will "gradually raise the minimum statutory retirement age" in its 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) for National Economic and Social Development, where "actively responding to the aging population" has risen to a national strategy priority for the first time.

Postponing retirement has become a much discussed topic in China although details about how retirement age will rise have yet to be released. Many people of different ages reached by the Global Times had mixed feelings about the plan, with some worrying that longer working life may bring uncertainties to their jobs and later life.

Voices of concerns

Whether Chinese senior citizens can afford several more years of employment is one of people's major concerns over postponing retirement. On Weibo, some users who oppose the proposal lamented they may die before retirement age after decades of grueling work.

Sitting in the office all year round, Li has bad eyes and a sore back. In fact, after the age of 50, Li said she was no longer responsible for her previous main job.

"Delaying retirement will not give the old more room for promotion. I have no passion for work," Li added.

Some older people who are not physically fit, are worried they won't be capable of competing with younger people in the workplace.

Lin Bi (pseudonym), a 53-year-old radiologist at a hospital in Daqing, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, said he feels that his work style and experience are out of step with the times.

"Nowadays, doctors make comprehensive use of the internet and technological innovation to diagnose and treat patients, and young doctors also have a wide range of knowledge through the internet. Sometimes I feel that I am not as good as they are," he said.

The radiologist who will have to retire at the age of 60 under China's current policies, said he is not as energetic as he was, especially during the night shift. "I would not like to delay retirement," he told the Global Times. "I can't imagine that I can still catch up with my [younger] colleagues seven years later."

In a poll launched by the Southern Metropolis Daily in November 2019, over 80 percent of respondents disagreed with postponing retirement.

Many people said delaying retirement age will intensify competition between the older and young worker, with 78 percent of the poll's respondents agree it will be more difficult for young people to get a job, especially a job in government departments or public institutions where people usually stay in a post for decades until retirement.

Xiao Yun, who worked at a public agency in East China's Fujian Province after graduating from college this summer, said she was the only 20-something staffer at her department. "All others are over the age of 40," she said, adding that she guesses her department won't hire new people until someone retires and leaves.

"If retirement age is delayed, they may occupy posts for years, limiting job opportunities for young people," Xiao sighed.

Urgent to change

Despite the concerns of some people, China is very likely to change its statutory retirement age in the face of a growing aging population and labor shortages, economists and public management experts told the Global Times.

There were 253.88 million people who ae 60 or older on the Chinese mainland by 2019, accounting for 18.1 percent of the country's population, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

China has the world's largest number of seniors, and they are required to retire earlier than those in any other country, said Li Chang'an, a professor at School of Public Administration under University of International Business and Economics, mentioning a data released by national human resources authority in 2017 which said that the average retirement age was only 54 in China.

"The current retirement standard was made in the 1950s when the average life expectancy was much shorter," Li told the Global Times. "Now our average life expectancy is approaching 80 years old, and the length of time we can work is much longer than in the past."

Life expectancy in China reached 77 years in 2018, which in 1957 was only 57 years, official statistics showed. The US life expectancy is 78.6 years and average retirement age is 65 for men and 63 for women.

The retirement age in China, especially for women do need adjusting, said Xi Heng, a professor at the School of Public Management of Northwest University in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

"Most Chinese women retire too early," Xi told the Global Times. "Look at the grannies dancing in the parks. Many of them are only in their early 50s."

NBS statistics show the number of people between 16 and 59 dropped by 890,000 in 2019, a continuing trend due to a low birthrate.

By the end of 2019, the accumulated balance of China's basic endowment insurance fund was 6.2 trillion yuan, according to data released by Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in June 2020.

"In general, there is a surplus in the pension fund, but in the face of the aging problem, there is an imbalance between pension income and expenditure," Chu Fuling, head of the China Social Security Research Center under the Central University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times.

Raising the retirement age will extend the contribution period of pension insurance and shorten the payout period, Chu noted.

Xi doesn't agree that older workers are taking jobs from younger workers. "Many jobs held by older employees need years of experiences, which newbies can't handle, or low-paid service jobs that young people are reluctant to do."

Many older workers who are required to retire are often rehired on contract. Lin Lezheng, former chief engineer of the design institute at Architectural Planning and Design Institute of Hunan Construction Group, said he continued working until he was 89.

"Sometimes young engineers who I worked with will call me for advice when they met design problems," said Lin, who is now 93.

"My strength is extremely limited at my age; but I think it's nice to still be able to do something and continue to contribute to society," he told the Global Times.

Flexibly implement

Postponing retirement is an irresistible trend for aging societies like China. How to formulate corresponding policies in line with China's national conditions and implement them flexibly will become a major task of authorities in the coming years.

Many experts reached by the Global Times believe that a step-by-step adjustment of the retirement age is feasible and more acceptable to Chinese public.

Chu believes the retirement age should be extended over a long transition period, perhaps by extending retirement a month or two per year until reaching a statutory retirement age, and the process may take 30 to 50 years.

Shen Shuguang, a professor of Department of Risk Management and Insurance under Sun Yat-sen University, also suggests future delaying retirement policies follow principles of practicality, reality and flexibility. "People working in different jobs should also be treated distinctively based on the degrees of working intensity and danger," Shen said.

Chu believes that it is necessary for the country to introduce corresponding policies to guarantee the employment of older workers and provide employment training to ensure that the older people don't encounter employment discrimination.

Gender also matters. Considering the fact that most Chinese women retire years earlier than men, some experts have suggested women should retire at the same age as men to ensure gender equality, which caused heated debate among Chinese netizens recently.

The postponement of retirement has been implemented among some female cadres and professionals since 2015, when the organization department of CPC Central Committee and national human resources authority jointly proposed that female workers at senior professional posts, or female officials at division level, can retire after they reach 60.

In the past, an earlier retirement was regarded as kind of a compensation for women who worked and bore most responsibility for raising children, Xi said. This policy seems no longer in keeping with the times today as an increasing number of women say they don't want a child.

Instead of retiring years early, "women with children could be given extended maternity leave or higher pensions - like women in some Western countries enjoy," he added.