新闻来源：www.abcnews.go.com
原文地址：China is raising its retirement age, now among the youngest in the world’s major economies
新闻日期：2024-09-13
中国将提高退休年龄，以解决人口老龄化和劳动力减少问题
全球主要经济体中，中国的退休年龄目前相对较年轻。据中国国务院新闻办公室宣布，其立法机构——全国人大常委会已通过新的政策，将男性退休年龄从60岁延长至63岁，女性则根据工作性质分别延长至55岁或58岁。
调整将于明年开始实施，并根据个人出生年份分阶段逐步推行。例如，1971年1月出生的人将在2032年8月达到61岁零7个月的退休年龄；而同年5月出生的人则将在2033年1月达到61岁零8个月。
专家表示，这种改变是必要的，因为人口老龄化和劳动力减少的问题已经变得日益突出。2023年末，中国超过2.9亿人年龄在60岁以上，预计到2035年这一数字将达到4亿，接近美国的人口总数。学者曾预测，中国的社保基金届时可能面临资金不足的问题。
实际上，世界各国都在面临类似问题，例如美国的社会保障基金也将在2033年前后难以支付全额退休金。这也意味着，在中国，不断增多的老年人会逐渐给年轻劳动者带来压力，因为他们要承担更多的养老金负担。
许多网友认为这种变化是必要的，而一些人则表达了担忧。
原文摘要：
Starting next year, China will raise its retirement age for workers, which is now among the youngest in the world’s major economies, in an effort to address its shrinking population and aging work force.
The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the country’s legislature, passed the new policy Friday after a sudden announcement earlier in the week that it was reviewing the measure, state broadcaster CCTV announced.
The policy change will be carried out over 15 years, with the retirement age for men raised to 63 years, and for women to 55 or 58 years depending on their jobs. The current retirement age is 60 for men and 50 for women in blue-collar jobs and 55 for women doing white-collar work.
“We have more people coming into the retirement age, and so the pension fund is (facing) high pressure. That’s why I think it’s now time to act seriously,” said Xiujian Peng, a senior research fellow at Victoria University in Australia who studies China’s population and its ties to the economy.
The previous retirement ages were set in the 1950’s, when life expectancy was only around 40 years, Peng said.
The policy will be implemented starting in January, according to the announcement from China’s legislature. The change will take effect progressively based on people’s birthdates.
For example, a man born in January 1971 could retire at the age of 61 years and 7 months in August 2032, according to a chart released along with the policy. A man born in May 1971 could retire at the age of 61 years and 8 months in January 2033.
Demographic pressures made the move long overdue, experts say. By the end of 2023, China counted nearly 300 million people over the age of 60. By 2035, that figure is projected to be 400 million, larger than the population of the U.S. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences had previously projected that the public pension fund will run out of money by that year.
Pressure on social benefits such as pensions and social security is hardly a China-specific problem. The U.S. also faces the issue as analysis shows that currently, the Social Security fund won’t be able to pay out full benefits to people by 2033.
“This is happening everywhere,” said Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. “But in China with its large elderly population, the challenge is much larger.”
That is on top of fewer births, as younger people opt out of having children, citing high costs. In 2022, China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that for the first time the country had 850,000 fewer people at the end of the year than the previous year , a turning point from population growth to decline. In 2023, the population shrank further, by 2 million people.
What that means is that the burden of funding elderly people’s pensions will be divided among a smaller group of younger workers, as pension payments are largely funded by deductions from people who are currently working.
Researchers measure that pressure by looking at a number called the dependency ratio, which counts the number of people over the age of 65 compared to the number of workers under 65. That number was 21.8% in 2022, according to government statistics, meaning that roughly five workers would support one retiree. The percentage is expected to rise, meaning fewer workers will be shouldering the burden of one retiree.
The necessary course correction will cause short-term pain, experts say, coming at a time of already high youth unemployment and a soft economy.
A 52-year-old Beijing resident, who gave his family name as Lu and will now retire at age 61 instead of 60, was positive about the change. “I view this as a good thing, because our society’s getting older, and in developed countries, the retirement age is higher,” he said.
Li Bin, 35, who works in the event planning industry, said she was a bit sad.
“It’s three years less of play time. I had originally planned to travel around after retirement,” she said. But she said it was better than expected because the retirement age was only raised three years for women in white-collar jobs.
Some of the comments on social media when the policy review was announced earlier in the week reflected anxiety.
But of the 13,000 comments on the Xinhua news post announcing the news, only a few dozen were visible, suggesting that many others had been censored.
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Wu reported from Bangkok. Video producer Caroline Chen in Beijing contributed to this report.
