As some U.S. lawmakers wrestle with the concept of trying to raise the full retirement age for Social Security benefits from 67 to 70 as a way to extend the solvency of the troubled program, French President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular plan to raise France’s retirement age from 62 to 64 was enacted into law Saturday.
That’s a day after the country’s constitutional body approved the controversial change, which has sparked months of nationwide protests organized by the country’s main labor unions. The next big protest is scheduled for May 1, which is International Workers’ Day.
Macron, who spoke to the country in a televised live address Monday, has long insisted that raising the retirement age by 2 years was absolutely necessary to keep the country’s pension system afloat as French population ages. Opponents argued for raising taxes on the wealthy or employers instead, but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Macron took a hard line by invoking a rarely used article in the French Constitution allowing him to push through a bill without a vote in the National Assembly.
Opposition to the plan has put a sizable dent in Macron’s popularity, but he never backed down, and after the Constitutional Council approved the higher minimum retirement age on Friday, Macron’s signature and publication in the Official Journal of the French Republic put the new law in force.
It will go into effect in September, meaning the first retirees will have to wait an additional three months for their state pensions. With regular, incremental increases, by 2030 the retirement age will reach 64.
President Macron claimed France’s long-established retirement age of 62 was unsustainable in a country where the average life expectancy is now 82. Official projections show there were only 1.7 workers for every retiree in 2020, down from 2.1 in 2000. By 2033, there will be just 1.5 and only 1.2 by 2070.
Macron made raising the retirement age a priority of his second term, and said he hoped his address would help the country move away from the period of protests and strikes over the retirement age that threatens the ambitions of his remaining four years in power.
He said Monday that he heard people’s anger over raising the retirement age, but again insisted it was needed to keep the pension system afloat.
While he may have “heard” the anger, many citizens took to the streets to bang pots and pans during his address to the nation in an orchestrated protest: “Macron won’t listen to us? We won’t listen to him!”
As the AP reported Monday, Macron said during his speech that the changes were “needed to guarantee everyone’s pension,” and that “gradually working more means also producing more wealth for our whole country.”
Across the pond, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators is holding discussions this year with a goal of recommending changes to bolster Social Security’s solvency. While details remain sketchy at this point, it is widely expected that raising the full retirement age from 67 to 70 will be among the proposals.
SEE ALSO:
• The Rage Over Raising the Retirement Age
• Nikki Haley Proposes Changing Retirement Age