Denmark will have the highest retirement age in Europe after the Danish Parliament passed a law raising the retirement age to 70 by 2040, on Thursday, the 22nd of May, reports the British broadcaster BBC.
The new retirement age of 70 will apply to everyone born after the 31st of December 1970.
The new law was passed on Thursday by 81 votes to 21.
Since 2006, Denmark has linked the official retirement age to life expectancy and reviews it every five years. It is currently 67, but will rise to 68 in 2030 and 69 in 2035.
However, last year, Social Democrat Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced that the principle of automatically raising the retirement age in line with life expectancy should be negotiated.
“We no longer believe that the retirement age should automatically increase,” she said, adding that her party believes that “we cannot simply continue to say that people should work another year longer”.
Roofer Tommas Jensen, 47, called the retirement changes “unjustified”, saying they would burden workers like him.
“We work and work and work, but we cannot go on forever,” he told Danish media, adding: “I have paid taxes all my life. I should also have time to spend with my children and grandchildren.”
In recent weeks, there have been trade union-backed protests in Copenhagen against the raising of the retirement age.
Jesper Ettrup Rasmussen, head of the Danish trade union group, called the plan to raise the retirement age “totally unfair”, pointing out that Denmark already has “the highest retirement age in the EU”.
HE WARNED THAT IT WOULD DENY PEOPLE “THE RIGHT TO A DIGNIFIED RETIREMENT”.
Retirement ages vary across Europe. Many governments have raised the retirement age in recent years on the basis of longer life expectancy and to tackle budget deficits.
In Sweden, retirement benefits can be claimed no earlier than age 63.
In Italy, the standard retirement age is 67, although, as in Denmark, it is adjusted on the basis of life expectancy estimates and may increase in 2026.
In the United Kingdom, persons born between the 6th of October 1954 and the 5th of April 1960 start receiving a pension at the age of 66. But for people born after this date, the state pension age increases gradually.
In France, a law was passed in 2023 raising the retirement age from 62 to 64. This very unpopular change led to protests and riots, and President Emmanuel Macron had to push it through Parliament without a vote.