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Original title: The gradual delay of retirement is fixed and the retirement age of “female cadres” can be adjusted first
Beijing News Express (Reporter Wu Wei) The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has publicly requested opinions and suggestions on the “14th Five-Year Plan” from the 30th of this month. Among them, “implementing a gradual delay in the legal retirement age” has been clearly written in the central government’s recommendations on the formulation of the “XIV Five-Year Plan” and the long-term goals for 2035.
How did the party and the government view this major policy change on the life, work and retirement of hundreds of millions of workers? How will it be implemented in the future? There is still a period of time from policy making to formal implementation, but relevant considerations and policy design are also beginning to take shape. The public can email the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security ([email protected]) if they have suggestions.
Policy Considerations
The proportion of the elderly population continues to increase and the average age of the working-age population is gradually increasing
Delayed retirement first appeared in the scheme of the “13th Five-Year Plan” published by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in July 2016. According to the schedule at that time, the specific plan for the gradual delay of The retirement age policy will be officially released to the public in 2017 and is expected to be officially implemented in 2021.
Jin Weigang, then director of the Social Security Institute of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and others have explained the policy of delaying retirement. Jin Weigang believes that from an international perspective, with the increase in the life expectancy of the population, the increase in the degree of aging of the population, the scarcity of the labor market, the increase in the dependency ratio of the elderly and the increased pressure on social pension funds, many countries have changed. All are gradually increasing the legal retirement age.
According to him, since the 1970s, more than 60 countries and regions have raised the legal retirement age to varying degrees. Timely, moderate and gradual increases in the legal retirement age have been converted into adjustments in response to changes in these factors. The development trend of the retirement policy.
The aging trend in China is also accelerating. In 2019, the Chinese population aged 65 and over reached 176 million, representing 23.0% of the world’s population of the same age group. This share is already higher than the world’s share of China’s total population (18.2%).
Zheng Dongliang, then director of the Labor Sciences Research Institute of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, predicted that after 2020, the average annual decline in the working-age population will increase, and the working-age population will decline from the peak. from more than 900 million in 2011 to 2050. Around 700 million.
The average age of the workforce also increases year after year. In 2016, the “China Human Capital Report 2016” published by the China Human Capital and Labor Economic Research Center of the Central University of Finance and Economics showed that the average age of the national workforce has risen to 36 years . The median age of the national workforce in 2019 has reached 37.8 years, and this figure was 32.2 years in 1985.
“Although labor productivity has gradually increased, the duration of education has been extended, the number of working years of workers has decreased, and the overall labor resources of society have been reduced. Therefore, labor resources must be developed and fully utilized, and the gradual delay in retirement is one way, “said Zheng Dongliang.
Policy expectations
The retirement age in some countries is 70 years; 65 may become China’s target retirement age
The implementation of deferred retirement will adjust the current retirement age. Therefore, the current retirement age in China is 50 for female employees, 55 for women and 60 for men. This policy has long been implemented in China’s labor retirement system.
Mo Rong, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Labor Sciences and Social Security, presented that in some countries, to avoid “age discrimination”, there is no legal retirement age and it is illegal for employers to force employees to retire, such as the United States, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Australia. . In some countries, mandatory retirement is legal, but there is a minimum retirement age.
“We have fixed the retirement age situation in 170 countries or regions around the world. Developed countries generally implement retirement ages greater than 65 years, and some even reach 70 years, such as Israel. A small number of countries economically backward have implemented retirement ages below 60. At the three-year retirement age, they have an imperfect pension system, limited coverage, or low life expectancy per capita, ”Mo Rong said.
Although the final plan for the gradual delay of the retirement policy was not officially announced during the period of the “XIII Five-Year Plan”, some suggestions from the relevant department heads and authorized experts have already appeared in the newspapers.
Regarding the target retirement age, Zheng Gongcheng, a professor at Renmin University of China and president of the Chinese Society of Social Security, recently said that it is feasible to raise the reference retirement age to 65 by 2050, from a comprehensive consideration and rational postponement.
Explaining the policy to the public, Yin Weimin, former Minister of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, also clearly stated: “The average retirement age of retirees participating in company employee pension insurance is less than 55 years. . Obviously, it is not reasonable. Most of the countries of the world are retiring. He is about 65 years old. “
Zheng Gongcheng also presented his idea: to set a period from 2020 to 2035 and a period from 2036 to 2050. In the first stage, the goal was to reduce the gap in the retirement age between men and women. The legal retirement age for female employees was gradually increased from 50 to 55 years. Female cadres could voluntarily choose to retire between the ages of 55 and 60. In the last stage, the legal retirement age was generally increased. The retirement age is the goal, that is, men will go from 60 to 65 years old and female employees will go from 55 to 60 years old, while women will be able to voluntarily choose to retire until they are 65 years old.
Policy design
Unification and voluntary combination, the retirement age of “female cadres” can be adjusted first
“Slow steps, flexible implementation, and improved incentives” are the latest political explanations for delaying retirement reform. After the Fifth Plenary Session of the XIX Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the People’s Editorial of the “Fifth Plenary Session of the XIX Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
In fact, “reduce social shocks and get more support” has been doing this since the issue of delayed retirement came into public attention.
In 2016, when Li Zhong, then a spokesman for the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and current Vice Minister of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, explained to the public about the delay in retirement, he made it clear that the delay in the implementation of the Retirement will take “many years” before implementation, and the pace will adjust. Slow, “there will be a fairly long process.”
How to implement the “small steps” policy? According to Mo Rong, there will be a certain transition period to extend the retirement age from the legislature to the beginning of the implementation, and the small-step jogging strategy will be adopted after the actual implementation, not a one-step delay. Like Japan and South Korea, there is a 13-year lag from legislation to actual implementation, and even longer in the United States.
At the beginning of the design of the policy, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security expressed its opinion on this policy, saying that it will start from reality, distinguish the situation of the different groups and implement it step by step. Under current policies, the retirement age for female government officials and male workers in Beijing is 60, and the retirement age for female government officials is 55. According to Su Hainan, special investigator of the China Labor Society, due to the different retirement ages of different groups, female cadres can take the lead in implementing deferred retirement.
In fact, the postponement of the retirement policy is part of the policy of China’s social security system. The “Proposals of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the formulation of the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Term Goals for 2035” are relevant to “a strong multi-level social security system.” The expression of the system is: “Improve a multi-level social security system that covers the entire population, coordinates urban and rural areas, is fair, unified and sustainable. Promote the transfer of social security, improve the basic pension, financing Basic Health Insurance and Benefit Adjustment Mechanism Making Basic Pension Insurance Nation a Reality Make comprehensive plans and implement a gradual delay in the legal retirement age. “
The adjustment of the retirement age implies the transformation of the entire social security system, especially the old-age insurance system, a reform that must be implemented smoothly in a comprehensive social security policy. The competent person in charge of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security also clearly mentioned that China will take four measures to reform and improve the pension insurance system. The first is to increase the level of general planning, from provincial in general to national in general, and achieve mutual assistance on a larger scale. Second, the pension insurance fund must be invested and managed to maintain and increase its value. The third is to introduce a policy of gradually delaying the retirement age in due time. The fourth is to improve the personal account system and encourage more payments and more benefits for long-term payments.
The “combination of unified regulations and voluntary options” also clarified the details of the future design of this policy for the first time. With the arrival of the “deferred retirement” policy, you can submit your suggestions to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security within this month.
Beijing News reporter Wu Wei
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