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Few Danes Work Until Official Retirement Age as Government Pushes It to 70 (courthousenews.com) 57

Posted by msmash from the story-of-our-lives dept.
Denmark's Parliament adopted a law in May raising the retirement age to 70 by 2040, up from the current 67, affecting anyone born after December 31, 1970. The country indexed its official retirement age to life expectancy in 2006 and revises it every five years, with the age set to increase to 68 in 2030 and 69 in 2035.

Few Danes actually work until the legal retirement age -- in 2022, when the official age was 67, the actual average retirement age was around 64, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. About 20% of Danish retirees leave work because they cannot find employment or are too sick to continue. The universal public pension currently provides 7,198 kroner ($1,130) per month, supplemented by mandatory and optional employer-funded pensions.
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Few Danes Work Until Official Retirement Age as Government Pushes It to 70

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  • Remember when coal companies paid employees in coal miner credits that were only good at the company store, and you had to rent your housing from the same company on the mine's land. You had zero chance of retiring, and basically worked until you died. We're almost back to those days.

    • I load 16 tonnes, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by McLoud ( 92118 )

        I load 16 tonnes, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt.

        +1 Cruel Reality

      • You load 16 tons, how do you feel? Too tired to work and too scared to steal.

        • Saint Peter don't you call me, cause I can't go
          I owe my soul to the company store

          • Oddly, the only workers quoted in the article who are not some sort of researcher or trade union representative are all women.

            Why don't they ask the men doing dangerous, crippling, earlier death causing jobs in construction, power line workers, fishing, farming, mining, etc.?

            Men dying 3 years earlier than women and getting 35% lest years of retirement payments from the government are not worth mentioning.

    • More like slaves to the useless eaters. Sure, the top 0.1% is doing well, but it's the ratio of dependents which is the more fundamental problem, eating the rich won't solve it.

      At the same time that social cohesion is going to shit and EU competitiveness is cratering.

    • It was generally called scrip, and none of us are that old.

  • 45% in taxes and you have to work until 70 for a meager pension. Oof.

    Sounds like a prelude to tax increases.

    • Re:Tax Increases Inbound (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anubis350 ( 772791 ) on Friday July 11, 2025 @04:24PM (#65513652)
      Erm..
      1) the public pension basically the same as the average social security check in the US but there's also universal healthcare, which is the overwhelming cost problem for most American seniors, and better renter protections which is the other major problem for American seniors
      2) it's in *addition* to mandatory employer paid pensions for most folks
      so, in reality, a lot more bang for their buck than here for that 45%

      • Re:Tax Increases Inbound (Score:4, Informative)

        by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Friday July 11, 2025 @05:40PM (#65513884)
        All American seniors already do have socialized healthcare.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          All American seniors already do have socialized healthcare.

          On Medicare, you still pay something like 22% premium each month (based on that average check amount in the example). And then you still have to pay for doctor visits (typically $20) but that does not include the bill for any treatment or procedure (no matter how minor or major) that the doctor might need to do in the visit. And if you need to have some other procedure done, that's also hundreds or thousands of dollars out of pocket. And none of that covers any prescription drugs. Those are 100% out of pock

          • That's a horrible story. Every so often living in the land of the NHS is shown to have its attractions; in the UK the NHS would pay those costs in their entirety.

          • Thank you for your post, it is interesting.

            Would I be correct in guessing that you are not a "senior citizen" as in 65+ ? Medicare for them is not means-tested.

            Granted, Medicare B, C, and D are means-tested, but if you're destitute (e.g. SS only) you should receive them for very little, and the "Extra Help" program is supposed to apply.

          • I am so sorry for you and this situation. You're exactly who Medicare was designed to help, and I don't like that it's not working. The libertarian part of me wants you to know the cost of the medical treatment, but the human part of me wants you to have what you need to live. Is it possible for you to emigrate to Canada or the UK and use their public health system?

            • Is it possible for you to emigrate to Canada ... and use their public health system?

              NO, stay in your own country.
              You live in the richest nation in history, don't mooch off your neighbors when there's more than enough wealth in the USA to provide all of it's citizens with a decent, healthy life. If you are unprepared to fight for fairness in your home country, we sure as hell don't want you migrating to ours.

        • All American seniors already do have socialized healthcare.

          *had. You did read all 950 pages of the fat fetish bill ... err I mean big beautiful bill right?

        • All American seniors already do have socialized healthcare.

          In theory, this is true. In Reality, it is a maze of paperwork and exceptions that are so difficult to navigate that the only real care that you will receive will be some checkups and ER visits... although, due to navigation difficulties, an ER visit can rob the senior of their home/living situation.

      • The US provides Medicare for seniors 65 and older. While not universal healthcare, it does cover about 80% of healthcare costs.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

        It's not a solution for the able-bodied under 65, but we're talking about people 65+ here.

    • 45% in taxes and it is a happy, safe country.

      It's almost as if you get what you pay for.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dduck ( 10970 )
      I think you are confusing marginal tax with actual tax rate. I am very well paid, and my effective tax rate is like 35%. Still high, but I have socialized medicin, cheap care in my old age, and my kids got both free university degrees and a stipend. Also my parents are well taken care off, and won't need my help.There are ways to lower my tax rate further, but not worth it to pursue for me. Most people also save up fairly well in their 401k equivalents. Calling it "optional" is really only technically cor

  • Seem fair to push retirement ages up, because everyone lives to the same age right?

    • I guess this is what happens if you just do the math and adjust the program accordingly. That must be why we in the US don't do that. Hard to tell whether racking up debt instead will work out in the end though.

      • Well, that's not true. Some time ago, they adjusted retirement ages for younger people.

        For example, my mother got to SS "full retirement age" at 65. For people of my generation, it's 67.

        • Fair point. But whatever corrections we have done are far, far short of backing out what can be done with the resources we have. I.e. making a budget and sticking to it. (I remember when Al Gore campaigned on his SS "Lock Box"... and of course lost.)

          • They could completely solve the projected shortage problem by investing the trust funds in something OTHER than special non-negotiable, super low interest govt bonds that they are required by law to be invested in.

            That's just a giveaway sweetheart deal for the govt, fucking over all the beneficiaries in the process.

            Imagine the improved returns if only 10% of the trust funds (which total over $3T by the way) were invested in an S&P500 index fund. It would be HUGE!!!!! But no, instead, everyone gets fuck

            • People talk about making a 401k for everybody instead of SS, which amounts to what you are saying. I am pretty sure the market has some limit to how much capital it can absorb and still give a good return. A company's stock doesn't go up unless they find a useful way to make even more money out of it. I think there must be a saturation point where companies cannot find additional useful ways to expand their business with more money, especially if everybody else is too. There is only so much passive inve

              • People talk about making a 401k for everybody instead of SS, which amounts to what you are saying.

                Ummm, yeah. No it doesn't. Not even remotely.

                I am pretty sure the market has some limit to how much capital it can absorb and still give a good return.

                You realize there is more than one market, right? There are also non-stock investments available.

                A company's stock doesn't go up unless they find a useful way to make even more money out of it.

                Well, you know, I guess it is a good thing that there is something called "dividends" that don't require a stock's price to increase.

                I think there must be a saturation point where companies cannot find additional useful ways to expand their business with more money, especially if everybody else is too.

                I think that's probably true. But someone buying a stock on the open market doesn't give a company more money to invest.

                There is only so much passive investment gains (free lunch) to go around - not that the size of the pie has a hard limit, but diminishing returns.

                That may be true. In the meantime, there are lots of people and organizations making money investing in stuff

                • They're right though. You invest in the stock market. The market goes higher. You get billionaires that think they know everything because their company's stock is high. They don't realize the stock is high because everyone was forced to invest somewhere, good or not. Then the billionaires start dismantling the systems that help us survive. Eventually, they bud off like a new sea sponge and repeat the process in a new country.

  • Both Denmark and France are socialist-leaning countries. I didn't think the gov't would get away with increasing the retirement age.

    Right-wing parties have been winning in EU of late, often fueled by anti-Muslim boogymanning, perhaps borrowing rhetoric from our Tinted One by exaggerating and highlighting crime or terrorist events*. I wonder when the anti-Muslim fervor eventually dies down if the leftist parties will adjust the retirement age back down.

    * EU desperately need immigrants to keep their populatio

  • So they run out of other people's money already? So much for socialist utopia.
  • Need to raid a few monasteries to pick up some loot for retirement.
  • Just as with encouraging smart people to have more kids, governments simply have to reward them with cuts in income tax.

    ( As part of a balanced budget - no need to be Trump Stoopid. )
  • ... because everybody knows most will become unemployed at this age for various reasons anyway. The goal is quite simply to lower the amount of money paid out as pensions.

  • Bank on it. 70 will be the new 67.

  • Please notice what the Danish Parliament has passed. The retirement age is raised to 70 in 2040! And there is no substantial health considerations. Just, economists' considerations of a future they think they can predict.

    "Since 2006, economic policy has been organized within the economic framework of the welfare agreement, which ensures consistency between life expectancy and retirement age. As a result, the government will introduce a bill in 2025 that will raise the retirement age to 70 in 2040. The pensi

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