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Denmark will raise its retirement age to 70 by 2040, the highest in Europe, after a controversial vote in Parliament.
The increase to the retirement age was approved in the country’s legislature, with 81 votes in favour and 21 against.
The age of retirement has been tied to life expectancyin Denmark – currently 81.7 years – since 2006, with the Government raising the threshold every five years.
Under the Danish system, the retirement age will rise from 67 to 68 in 2030, and then 69 in 2035, and finally to 70 in 2040. The retirement age of 70 will only apply to Danes born after December 31, 1970.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has admitted the sliding scale for retirement is not sustainable, and that a new system will eventually need to replace it.
“We no longer believe that the retirement age should be increased automatically,” she said. “You can’t just keep saying that people have to work a year longer.”
Danish workers reacted with scorn to the new rules, warning that they would be particularly tough for blue-collar workers in physically demanding jobs.
Denmark's retirement age will rise to 70 by 2040, the highest in Europe. Photo / Getty Images
“[It’s] unrealistic and unreasonable,” roofer Tommas Jensen, 47, told public broadcaster DR. “We work and work and work, but we can’t keep going.
“I’ve paid my taxes all my life. There should also be time to be with children and grandchildren.”
The retirement regime has also been branded “completely unfair” by Jesper Ettrup Rasmussen, the chairman of Denmark’s confederation of trade unions.
“Denmark has a healthy economy and yet the EU’s highest retirement age. A higher retirement age means that [people will] lose the right to a dignified senior life,” he said in comments reported by the BBC.
The retirement age is a sensitive subject in Europe, with higher life expectancy and budget deficits pushing each generation to work for longer than its predecessor.
As a result, Denmark’s decision to have the highest retirement age somewhat contradicts its reputation as an exceedingly prosperous and comfortable Nordic state.
In neighbouring Sweden, pension benefits can still be claimed by citizens as young as 63. In France, there were mass protests and riots when Emmanuel Macron’s Government imposed a law raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.
In Britain, those born between 1955 and 1960 generally start to receive their pension at 66, but the threshold gradually increases for those born after 1960.
