Swiss Life presented a remarkable study on the 55 plus labor market on Monday. The answers of the 750 companies surveyed could be summarized as follows: “Yes, we have a shortage of skilled workers. No, we don’t mind. “
Employers could do something about this by creating incentives to keep employees in the company longer. However, according to Swiss Life, “they rarely take measures to encourage employees to remain employed until or beyond the normal retirement age”.
That confirms my observation. Instead of creating incentives themselves, companies prefer to pass the ball on to politicians so that they can create better framework conditions for people over 65. This can also be observed in the current AHV revision.
The Council of States wanted to increase the monthly AHV exemption for pensioners from the current CHF 1,400 to CHF 2,000. Once again, the shortage of skilled workers was used as an argument for this. But that would cost the AHV an estimated 88 million annually. Not a really good idea if the AHV revision is under the title “Stabilization of the AHV”.
A very good idea, however, is to let employees who are of retirement age choose whether they want to make use of the AHV exemption of CHF 1,400 per month or not. This freedom of choice will become a reality, provided that the current AHV mini-revision with the adjustment of the women’s retirement age and additional financing via VAT can get away with it. It was the National Council that decided on this freedom of choice for pensioners in the summer session. The Council of States then dealt with this in an initial adjustment for differences.
It is a good idea because the AHV deductions for retirees should be pension-building in the future. You have to know that less than 50 percent of all pensioners are entitled to a full AHV pension. If you continue to work at retirement age and thus pay AHV contributions, you can top up your AHV pension up to the amount of the maximum full pension of currently CHF 2390 per month. It will be worthwhile to forego the exemption of CHF 1,400 per month or CHF 16,800 per year so that the AHV contributions are high enough to improve the pension over the long term. Anyone who receives the maximum full pension one way or another logically chooses the tax exemption.
That would be an enormous advantage for the socially disadvantaged, those without a full AHV pension. The subjunctive because the AHV revision with the adjusted women’s retirement age, the associated VAT increase and the new regulation with the AHV exemption must first be approved by all of us.