France: working longer takes time, in spite of reforms to raise the retirement age

Abstract

Examination of the French situation from a comparative European perspective exposes the country's poor performance with regard to the employment of seniors and the prolongation of working life. Despite a recent rise in the employment rate of 55-59 year-olds, worrisome signs have appeared, such as the steep rise in unemployment for this age category; this is indicative of the increasing vulnerability of ageing workers in the labour market. This critical analysis of twenty years of French public policies related to older workers seeks to identify the reasons for France's lag in making working life longer. The principal reason seems to be that public policies have nearly exclusively focused on increasing the supply of senior labour without adequately taking into account incentives for stimulating corporate demand for it. The many pension reforms undertaken from 2003 to 2014 have sought to lift the institutional obstacles to working longer. Accordingly, they have raised both the legal retirement age and the requisite number of quarters of contributions for entitlement to a full pension under Social Security. But effective, active labour market policies for stimulating the demand for senior labour have been lacking.

Retirement Pension Reforms in Six European Social Insurance Schemes between 2000 and 2017: More Financial Sustainability and More Gender Inequality?

“…The main reforms undertaken in the six countries clearly sought to contain pension expenditure while ignoring the second objective. The negative impact on women of the large majority of these measures brought about neither public debate nor opposition, with the exception of France (reforms of 2003 and 2010) through campaigns run by social organisations combating gender discrimination (Guillemard, 2016;Renga et al, 2010). In all the remaining countries, these reforms faced strong opposition from trade unions due to the effects on workers in general (Busemeyer, 2005;Bonoli and Palier, 2007;Guillemard, 2016;Gago, 2017;Hagemann and Scherger, 2016).…”

Quais são os efeitos do envelhecimento populacional nos sistemas previdenciários de Brasil, Espanha e França?

“…Finalmente, estes países devem ter empreendido alguma reforma previdenciária recentemente, seja ela mais radical, como aquelas realizadas pela Espanha (DÍAZ-GIMENEZ; DÍAS-SAAVEDRA, 2017), ou menos efetiva, como no caso francês (GUILLEMARD, 2016). Neste último país, a idade efetiva de aposentadoria pouco se alterou, característica negativa compartilhada com o Brasil.…”

“…Mudanças nos sistemas previdenciários foram realizadas nos três países. A França empreendeu várias reformas entre 2003 e 2014 (GUILLEMARD, 2016) . Entretanto, em que pese a direção correta, a magnitude dos resultados não parece ter sido suficiente, dado o aumento previsto para as despesas, em relação ao PIB.…”

Substitution and spill‐overs between early exit pathways in times of extending working lives in Europe

“…Casey based his findings on case studies with a number of member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD). Other studies referring to instrument substitution have been primarily based on single case studies or early retirement from a comparative perspective (Guillemard and Van Gunsteren, 1991; Ebbinghaus, 2006; Guillemard, 2016). In the field of economics, a rather large literature exists on the “spill‐over effects” of – or the observation of instrument substitution resulting from – early retirement reforms.…”