The French government led by Emmanuel Macron has chosen to delay the minimum retirement age, which is currently 62 in the country, to 64, and not to 65, as it had initially considered. However, to financially pay for this change, the increase in the contribution period will be accelerated up to 43 years.
The French media have agreed this Monday that this will be the star announcement of the pension reform that will be formally presented tomorrow afternoon by the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, together with the headlines of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, Labor, Olivier Dussopt , and Civil Service, Stanislass Guerini. For his part, Borne had already recognized that 65 years were not untouchable and Éric Ciotti, the president of the conservative Republicans (LR) party, essential to carry out the reform, has made 64 years one of his conditions to give your support.
In addition, public opinion is much more against delaying the minimum retirement age by three years. In a survey released last Friday, the Ifop survey institute explained that 68% of those interviewed are against raising it to 64 years of age and 79% against 65, according to EFE. In any case, as the objective of the Executive is to balance the financing of the pension system in the horizon of 2030, an effort will be lacking to compensate for one year less than expected for retirement.
This will be possible with an acceleration of the rate at which the contribution period necessary to cause a full pension (without penalties) grows. By virtue of a previous pension reform, that period increases progressively from 2020 to 2035, from 41 to 43 years, but now it is a question of speeding it up. It must be taken into account that when this contribution period has not been covered, you must wait until you are 67 years of age to retire without penalty.
Other conditions
One of the unknowns that remain to be cleared up is whether another of the conditions set this Sunday by the president of LR will also be included, which establishes 85% of the minimum wage as the minimum pension for those who have covered the full contribution period, it is about 1,200 euros currently in 13 monthly payments, but not only for future retirees, but also for current ones.
In order to extend this minimum to current retirees, the Minister of Finance, Gabriel Attal, pointed out that a financial compensation mechanism would have to be sought, for an estimated cost of around 1,200 million euros on the horizon of 2027. Because there are currently Nearly 1.8 million retirees who earned less than 1,000 euros per month despite having the contribution period covered, especially former farmers, self-employed workers and women who worked part-time.
Unions are against
All the unions are directly opposed to a reform that they consider unjustified or that, if carried out, we have to start doing with an increase in employer contributions, an option ruled out by Macron, who maintains as one of his political axes not increase taxes, especially those of companies. The centrals meet tomorrow to, immediately after Borne’s announcements, present the program of the first mobilizations to try to block the reform that, according to the government’s plans, will be adopted by the Council of Ministers on January 23 so that start the parliamentary process at the beginning of February.
