Chinese women are desperate to continue working but are forced to retire
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Chinese female professionals face the world’s youngest retirement age because Beijing balances the aging needs of aging workers and unemployment.
Court documents reveal that Chinese women have more than 1,000 times sued their employers for leaving the job at the age of thirty from 2019, while women in management positions can stay until they turn 55. In the previous decade of 2019, less than 800 such cases.
Chinese labor rules require women in certain professions to retire earlier than others, but the law is vague in determining which groups are within the policy. In the US, the full retirement of men and women begins at age 66.
The rise of the retirement conflict highlights China’s demographic problem: the country the population is aging and the birth rate goes down, creating an economic clock bomb. At the same time, the government is working to meet ambitious economic growth targets, as state pension funds are at risk.
“It is true that our retirement rules have caused a waste of human capital and put pressure on the pension system,” said a Beijing-based government adviser who asked not to be identified. “But the authorities also don’t want the elderly to compete with young people for jobs that are still scarce.”
China established its retirement system in the early 1950s, when Beijing set a mandatory age for most women to leave the workforce at 50, with 55 management roles or special skills for female workers and 60 for men, regardless.
Analysts said the deal was very appropriate back then when citizens under the age of 50 rarely lived and women had an average of six children for a country.
“We have retired women, especially ordinary ones, earlier so that they can spend more time caring for the family,” said Yuan Xin, a demographer and government adviser in Tianjin.
Since then, the life expectancy of Chinese women has risen to nearly 80 years, and births have fallen, even as family planning policies have eased. Chinese population it grew at the slowest speed 10 decades to 2020.
These factors, along with improved education and income growth, have driven more women concentrate on their careers and create retirement savings.
China’s low-subsidy system would also alleviate retirement delays for workers struggling in Beijing contributing to the aging population of the nation.
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the official think tank, said in a report that it hoped that by 2035 the country-backed pension fund would run out of money. “There should be a new policy on late retirement as soon as possible.” Said Fang Lianquan, one of the authors of the study.
Despite China’s ambiguous labor laws and the resistance of many professional women who want to work until the age of 55, the policy of early retirement has not changed.
China’s retirement system originated in the 1950s, when people under the age of 50 lived and women had an average of six children © AP
In eastern Jiangsu province, Wang Yun, 51, lost his lawsuit this year against his employer, a shopkeeper who worked as a marketing director, for retiring at the age of 50. The case was dismissed after the defendant filed a recently revised corporation. the letter, which limited management positions to directors and more.
“I’ve been managing people for almost a decade and I have the strength and desire to keep my job,” Wang said. “It’s a pity the judge won’t hear me.”
Another major obstacle to changing China’s retirement policy is the country’s youth. Even though the working age population in the country is declining, there are many younger workers struggling to find work.
The unemployment rate for Chinese adults under the age of 24 is over 13 percent, about 5 percent of the state average. This shortage of jobs would be exacerbated if older workers retire.
“The Chinese economy does not allow young and old to be fully employed,” said an adviser to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, which sets the retirement policy. “We can only give priority to a group of people.”
Another obstacle to raising the retirement age is the large number of adult women, targeted by low-level workers who want to enjoy pension benefits as soon as possible after working on factory floors or in office booths.
In the northeastern city of Fushun, Wang Feng, a 50-year-old office manager, has retired this month, even though Chinese law allowed him to work for another five years.
“I’ve been busy for more than three decades and I haven’t felt well in the last few years,” Wang said. “I don’t want to work anymore.”
You Jun, the deputy minister of human resources and social security, said in February that China would extend the retirement age “in a gradual manner,” but did not provide a timeline.
Government advisers say reforms could begin next year when the official retirement age for men and women increases by a few months.
This will do little to alleviate the concerns of many female professionals. “Perhaps my daughter’s generation will have more freedom to choose when to retire,” said Liu Hui, a 49-year-old marketing association in Shanghai. “I’m probably not going to be that lucky.”
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