新闻来源：www.cnn.com
原文地址：For decades, Chinese workers have retired relatively early. That’s about to change
新闻日期：2024-09-13
中国劳动者多年来一般在相对较年轻的年龄退休：男性60岁，女性50岁或55岁。但这一切即将改变，因为中国政府周五出台的新法案计划在未来15年逐步延迟退休年龄。
这一变化是中国政府为应对经济放缓和人口老龄化的压力而做出的重要决策。中国的劳动人口长期以来一直相对年轻，但随着人口老龄化日益严重以及养老金资金问题的出现，中国面临“未富先老”的困境。
新法案规定，男性的退休年龄将逐渐推迟至63岁；女性则相应地推迟到55岁和58岁。这项措施由中国最高立法机构批准，并得到了此前7月份关键共产党团体信号的支持。
此外，新政策还提出，员工的最低工作年限需达到20年才能领取月度养老金（从2030年开始实施），并对退休年龄提供一定的灵活性，尤其是对那些已满足最低工作年限的人群。
这些变化反映了中国为解决现有退休制度存在的问题而进行的一项重要改革。专家指出，当前的退休政策框架已经保持了73年不变，尤其是在1978年改革开放以来，人口、经济和社会面貌发生了巨大变化。
人口老龄化已经成为中国的重大挑战。据民政部的数据，2023年中国60岁及以上的老年人口超过2.97亿。预计到2035年，老年人将占总人口的30%，并在本世纪中叶达到40%以上，使中国成为“超级老龄社会”。
为了应对这一挑战，政府加大了扩大养老服务和推动银发经济的努力，并特别关注养老金体系如何应对劳动力减少与老龄人口增加的情况。据中国社科院2019年的报告预测，到2035年，由于劳动年龄人口的减少，中国的养老保险基金可能会枯竭。
此外，近期严格的防疫措施导致地方政府财政收入减少，可能使养老金短缺更加严重。去年初，一些大城市的数千名老人因担心地方财政会从个人账户中挤钱来填补养老金缺口而抗议医疗福利支付大幅削减。
对于仍在劳动年龄的人来说，疫情后经济放缓和近年来政府主导的行业整顿也带来了就业挑战。7月，16至24岁非学生群体的青年失业率为17.1%，25至29岁的失业率则为6.5%。雇主继续减少招聘，尤其是在技术领域，人们普遍注意到对35岁以上求职者的年龄歧视。
新法案还要求政府支持年轻人就业和创业，并强化老年职工就业岗位的发展以及加强职业年龄歧视的预防和治理。
原文摘要：
For decades, Chinese workers have wrapped up their working lives at relatively young ages: 60 for men and as early as 50 for women. But all that is about to change as the Chinese government passed new legislation on Friday laying out a plan to delay the retirement age over the course of 15 years, starting January 1, according to state news agency Xinhua. Existing rules stated that men in urban areas could retire at 60 and receive their pensions, and women at 50 or 55, depending on their occupation. The new rules gradually push back the age to 63 for men, and to 55 and 58, respectively, for women. The measures, which were approved by the country’s top lawmaking body following signaling from a key Communist Party body in July, also lay out plans to extend the minimum working period for employees to receive a monthly pension from 15 to 20 years, with changes starting from 2030. They also include some flexibility in retirement age, especially for those who have already completed the minimum working period. The change, which the government has been considering for about a decade, comes as China’s economy slows while Beijing grapples with the looming consequences of a rapidly aging population and a pension funding crisis. The announcement sparked immediate widespread discussion – and backlash – across Chinese social media. Some social media users appeared encouraged that the changes weren’t more drastic and included some flexibility. One comment on the X-like social media platform Weibo that garnered thousands of likes said: “As long as there are options to retire or not based on our will, I have no objections.” Others voiced discontent over the prospect of delayed access to their pension and years of extra work, as well as concern about whether the policy would strain China’s already tough job market, where unemployment levels among young people remain stubbornly high. “Delayed retirements just means you can’t get your pension until you hit 63, but it doesn’t mean everyone will have a job until then!” wrote one user. Chinese state media in recent days has hailed the anticipated changes as an urgent and necessary reform for an outmoded system, highlighting how the existing policy had been in place since the 1950s when life expectancies and education levels were both lower. “The current retirement policy framework has remained unchanged for 73 years. Especially since the reform and opening up (starting around 1978), the demographic, economic and social landscape has transformed dramatically,” demographer Yuan Xin was quoted by state media as saying earlier this week. The existing retirement age is seriously mismatched with the current “national realities” and the new normal of future economic and social development, said Yuan, who is deputy head of the China Population Association and a demographer at Nankai University in Tianjin. China’s existing retirement ages are lower than those in a number of major economies. The 2022 average standard retirement ages across Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries stood at 63.6 years old for women and 64.4 years old for men. Other countries have also grappled with how to manage the retirement age. Major protests erupted in France in 2023 in response to a government attempt to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. The US has also been debating retirement reform and gradually increasing the retirement age, with Social Security incentives in place for retirees who delay taking benefits until age 70. Demographic and economic challenges The changes come as China’s leadership has become increasingly concerned by the country’s demographic challenges, which some economists warn could see the still-developing country fall into the trap of “getting old before it gets rich.” China’s population has shrunk for the past two years, and it 2023 it recorded its lowest birth rate since the founding of Communist China in 1949, despite a reversal of the country’s long-standing “one-child policy” from 2016 and government-led efforts to incentivize more young couples to have children. China’s elderly now account for more than 20% of the population, according to a report earlier this month from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which said about 297 million were aged 60 and above by the end of last year. Demographers cited in state media have said that, between 2030 and 2035, the elderly population will make up 30% of the total population. That is likely to increase to more than 40% of the population by the middle of this century – making China a “super-aged society.” Those projections have seen the government ramping up efforts to expand elderly care services and boost private-sector efforts to build a “silver economy.” It’s also put heightened focus on the ability of the country’s pension system to handle a shrinking workforce alongside its burgeoning elderly population. A 2019 report from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a top government think tank, forecast that China’s state pension fund would run dry by 2035 because of its dwindling workforce. Years of strict pandemic-related restrictions, which have shrunk the coffers of local governments, could make the pension shortfall even more pronounced. Early last year, thousands of elderly people protested in several major cities against big cuts to their medical benefits payments, fearing that local governments were dipping into their individual accounts to cover the shortages in the state pension fund. Even for those of working age, employment remains a steep challenge following the pandemic and a raft of government-led industry crackdowns in recent years. In July, the youth unemployment rate hit 17.1% among those aged between 16 and 24 who are not students, and was 6.5% for those 25 to 29 that month, according to state media. Employers continue to pull back on hiring as the economy slows and people, especially in tech sectors, have widely noted age discrimination in hiring for those over 35. The new regulations also call on the state to “support young people’s employment and entrepreneurship, strengthen the development of employment positions for older workers … and strengthen the prevention and governance of employment age discrimination.”
