The 2023 France Pension Reform
Pension reform is never easy but in some countries it seems to be particularly difficult. Over the past months, France saw widespread protests against planned reforms, in particular against the increase of the retirement age from 62 to 64 years. To many outside observers this does not seem like a particularly radical reform, given that many OECD countries are on the way to reaching a pension age beyond 65.
The pension reform attempt in France in 2019 tried to create a single universal system unifying the many parallel pension schemes and rules applying to different sectors and occupational groups, but it was abandoned following widespread protests and the emergence of the pandemic.
The objective of the 2023 pension reform is more modest: it mainly aims to eliminate the projected deficit in the pension system by 2030; it has four main components: