Denmark should have the highest retirement age in Europe after its parliament adopted a law relating it to 70 by 2040.
Since 2006, Denmark has linked the official retirement age to life expectancy and revised it every five years. It is currently 67 but will increase to 68 in 2030 and 69 in 2035.
The retirement age at 70 will apply to all people born after December 31, 1970.
The new law was adopted Thursday with 81 votes and 21 votes against.
However, last year, the Social Democratic Prime Minister, Put Frederiksen, said that the principle of the sliding scale would ultimately be renegotiated.
“We no longer believe that retirement age should be increased automatically,” she said, adding that in the eyes of her group, “you cannot continue to say that people have to work one more year.”
Tommas Jensen, a 47 -year -old sunset, told Danish media that the change was “unreasonable”.
“We work and work and work, but we cannot continue,” he said.
He added that the situation may be different for those who have office work, but that the blue passes with physically demanding professions would find difficult changes.
“I paid my taxes all my life. There should also be time to be with children and grandchildren,” Jensen told Outlet DK.
The protests supported by unions against the increase in retirement age have taken place in Copenhagen in recent weeks.
Before Thursday’s vote, Jesper Ettrup Rasmussen, the president of a Confederation of the Danish union, said that the proposal to increase retirement age was “completely unfair”.
“Denmark has a healthy economy and yet the highest retirement age in the EU,” he said.
“A higher retirement age means that (people) will lose the right to a worthy senior life.”
The ages of retirement through Europe vary. Many governments have increased retirement age in recent years to reflect a longer life expectancy and to combat budget deficits.
In Sweden, the earliest individuals can begin to claim retirement services is 63.
The standard retirement age in Italy is 67 years, although as in the case of Denmark, this is also subject to adjustments according to estimates of life expectancy and can increase in 2026.
In the United Kingdom, people born between October 6, 1954 and April 5, 1960 began to receive their pension at the age of 66. But for people born after this date, state retirement age will gradually increase.
And in France, a law was adopted in 2023 which brought the retirement age from 62 to 64 years. The very unpopular change triggered demonstrations and riots and had to be pushed by the Parliament by President Emmanuel Macron without a vote.
