With the approval of the government, the Senate voted Thursday in favor of an improved pension for mothers leaving at the legal retirement age, but having accumulated the required annuities from a year before. During the examination of the government reform project, the senators adopted by 280 votes for, and 64 abstentions, a proposal coming from the right and the centrists for a “surcharge” of pension of up to 5% for women who will exceed the 43 annuities required, under the effect of the maternity and child-rearing quarters. “This will affect 30% of women in a generation” or “130,000 people” per year, said the rapporteur for the Old Age branch René-Paul Savary (LR).
A measure amounting to 300 million euros
The measure, amounting to 300 million euros, is going “in the right direction”, according to the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt. He recalled that the maternity and childrearing terms were created when women interrupted their careers more often, and that they become “less useful”, even if they must remain. The left has expressed its reservations, because the premium will not compensate for “the brutality” of raising the legal age from 62 to 64. “It makes women lose a little less than expected, it’s a lesser setback,” said ecologist Mélanie Vogel.
“We are coming to the sweet part of the reform”, after the vote on the night of Wednesday to Thursday of article 7 devoted to raising the legal age, “but it looks more like a sweetener”, tackled his college green Thomas Dossus. “Inequalities in wages and pensions are not resolved” between women and men, added socialist Michelle Meunier. Women’s pensions are currently 40% below those of men, a difference reduced to 28% with survivors’ pensions.
“A real red line” for the Republicans
In detail, a bonus of 1.25% per additional quarter of contribution will be granted to those who exceed 43 annuities one year before the legal age of departure, with at least one quarter of maternity or childcare increase. While the executive seeks the support of the right on all of its highly contested reform, the leader of the senators LR Bruno Retailleau recalled that his group had made this measure “a real red line”. “I had been accused of wanting a pro-natalist policy” by some left-wing elected officials, who ultimately supported the amendment, he welcomed, hailing “a social left”, as opposed to a left seeking to “deconstruct” the family according to him.
“I have a doubt about the pronatalist dimension” of the measure, however quipped the socialist Laurence Rossignol, former Minister of Families, for whom this surcharge will not play in the decision to have a child or not. The amendment was given priority consideration on Thursday, which caused the left to jump, deprived of the defense of a series of amendments to delete Article 8 of the bill. The senatorial right seeks to speed up the debates, more than a thousand amendments remaining on the menu until Sunday.