In European countries when people reach retirement age they should have a choice of retiring like now or belonging to a new category of people. The working seniors. Working seniors if employed would not collect pensions (only while employed of course) but also their employer would not have to pay any social charges for them. The underlying principle is that people who reached retirement age have already paid their contribution to the pension system they can stop collecting but do not need to contribute if they work. Employers would find it more attractive to keep people or hire people pass retirement age and the pension system would benefit because it does not pay out while the person who could retire still works.
The other big incentive is that because working seniors can at any point quit and collect their pension they would not be part of the forced severance pay system of Europe which is so costly and makes companies not want to hire.
Follow Martin Varsavsky on Twitter: twitter.com/martinvars
No Comments
valensianet on September 13, 2011 ·
Dani, what you mention exists already in the Spanish labor Law. It’s called a “relay contract” (contrato de relevo). Unfortunately, it’s not widely spread.
Martin, I think your idea makes sense, but first we would need to change the whole “insider” vs “outsider” regulation, at least in Spain, because that would still push the advantage to the current “insiders” and make it even harder (if that’s possible) to hire young people.
In any case, analysis on the labor market is highly appreciated…. I think that’s the most dysfunctional part of the Spanish economy, and don’t see many politicians bring forward any good idea of how to overhaul it.
Piotr on September 14, 2011 ·
Good idea. That’s exactly how it is here in Poland.
algis on September 20, 2011 ·
would be interesting to know at what age retire military and police service…in spain.
lets say in Lithuania -military/policemen/security government retire after serving 20 years .
so means at age of 38 (many friends already retired…)
interesting at what age -military could retire in france,argentina…other countries 🙂
ali parandeh on October 8, 2011 ·
In Spain the government does reduce the social security fees for companies who want to employ retired, unemployed or all sorts of staff. But and there is always a but, when you actually come to it, the small print and pre requisite are worse than guarantee of street sellers. The requirements for getting such reductions are so much that some times you wonder are you meant to find someone who can do the job, or just meet requirements such as must be over 45, unemployed for at least 2 years, single with two kids and elderly parents who live in. Now if you find a candidate who can program, design or have any expertise and meet the above…. let me know . Lol. Much better off paying. Chinese and Indians who work harder and the quality ain’t that different when u consider the costs.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Dani Santi on September 12, 2011 ·
I thought about this idea some time ago talking about retirement, and the people who want to keep working.
I think there is a better system, where people who are in retirement age could work partial time (20h/week) and be at the same time a kind of mentor for new employes (internship) who work partial time as well. So we could avoid the high unemployment youth rates and what you mentioned in this post. 2×1 🙂