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Higher rates of longevity are pushing up ages of retirement. In line with this, the Danish government has just announced it will raise the retirement age for its citizens from 67 to 70 by the year 2040. In so doing, Denmark's workers will have the world's longest wait before they can retire. Denmark said the new law was necessary to keep pace with increasing life expectancy. However, Jesper Rasmussen, a trade union leader in Denmark, expressed his consternation at the government's move. He said: "Denmark has a healthy economy and yet the EU's highest retirement age". He added: "A higher retirement age means that [workers will] lose their right to a dignified senior life."
There is a precedent for the retirement age being 70. The world's first case was in Germany in 1881. It set the age at 70, before reducing it to 65 in 1916. Many countries followed suit and incorporated their own ages for workers to retire with a state pension. The USA first adopted a retirement age in 1935. It was set at 65. The USA Today website reported that in America, the retirement age was also steadily creeping up. It wrote: "The upward trend is slow, but striking. In 1994, the average man worked to age 61, while the typical woman clocked out at 59. Americans are living longer, and working longer." China has also announced an increase, to be rolled out over the next 15 years.
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