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Denmark has announced it will raise the retirement age for its citizens to 70 by the year 2040. Workers will have the world's longest wait to retire. Denmark said this was because of increasing life expectancy. However, Danish people are unhappy. A trade union leader said: "Denmark has a healthy economy and yet the EU's highest retirement age." He said workers would "lose their right to a dignified senior life".
The world's first retirement age was set at 70 in Germany in 1881. Many countries followed and introduced their own ages. The USA first adopted a retirement age in 1935. The retirement age in America is creeping up. "USA Today" 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."
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