‘Ludicrous and unfair’: older workers react to pressure to delay retirement

As French workers stage yet another public show of discontent about President Emmanuel Macron’s raising of the state pension age from 62 to 64, the International Monetary Fund has urged governments to encourage fit, older workers to delay retirement. Instead, it argued, governments could encourage workers to delay their retirement, cut early retirement benefits, and increase pension ages to rebalance the increasingly precarious ratio of workers and retirees. “Why should we work to [70], put more in for people who don’t work?” asked Susan, a factory worker from Hull. “Governments want [baby boomers] to stay in work, but companies discriminate against older workers,” she said. Retiring at 64, the legal retirement age in France, is in my view ludicrous and selfish.