Germany's new labor minister seeks compromise on early retirement after 45 years
A government pension commission wants to scrap penalty-free retirement after 45 years of contributions. New Labor Minister Alexander Schweitzer (SPD) is seeking a compromise, saying government and parliament decide.
Archive image · Photo: Olaf Kosinsky / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de (cropped and resized)
Germany's new Labor Minister Alexander Schweitzer of the Social Democrats is seeking a compromise in the dispute over penalty-free retirement after 45 years of contributions, known as the "pension at 63." It will be "exactly one of the topics on which we must sit down together and find a good compromise," he told the Rheinpfalz newspaper. "I am confident that we will succeed."
The government's pension commission presented 33 proposals in June, including abolishing the rule. Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) and Schweitzer's predecessor Bärbel Bas had said they would implement them as a package. Schweitzer said: "Commission proposals are commission proposals are commission proposals." Decisions would be made by the government and the Bundestag, he said.
Abolition faces resistance within the SPD but also from eastern German CDU state premiers Sven Schulze, Michael Kretschmer and Mario Voigt. Schweitzer was sworn in on Wednesday after Bas resigned. According to echo24, about 260,000 to 270,000 people use the rule each year.