Governance The new five-year term promises a reform of the retirement age. Common sense asserts that if life expectancy has greatly increased, it is natural for the legal retirement age to be delayed by the same amount, for example up to 65 years. Such an approach nevertheless neglects that the real issue is to replace retirement in the overall way of considering work in our society. Let’s take three illustrations.
Statisticians Olivier Marchand and Claude Minni have shown that, for years, France has made a choice with regard to work by concentrating economic activity on one generation, that of 25-54 year olds (“ Economics and statistics », 2019). The duration of a professional career has been shortened not only by an earlier legal retirement age than in other countries, but also by a later entry of young people due to longer studies.
This latest development should be linked to the deterioration of the image of manual trades and apprenticeship in our country. To ensure the sustainability of the pension system, it will therefore be necessary to question the two ends of the chain and to ask to what extent it is sustainable for the community as a whole that its members concentrate their professional activity over thirty years. .
Slower career progression
The French choice has led to an intensification of work in the 25-54 age group to obtain relatively high productivity compared to other developed countries. This has resulted in a culture of youthism in companies, considering that beyond a certain age an employee is both too expensive and too little adaptable. In 2020, half of those over 60 are not working but are covered either by unemployment insurance or by health insurance.
The extension of the retirement age will force us to review this conception of individual performance: on the one hand, companies will have to maintain and create new jobs for seniors; on the other hand, it will be necessary to reconsider the positions and work rhythms to adapt them to a population of older employees; finally, it will be necessary to accept that career development is slower, the oldest leaving the company later. A radical change in the managerial software will be required.
If we consider the economic role played by retirees in society, we must also anticipate what a shift in the retirement age will modify.
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