According to the 14th Five-Year Plan for the development of human resources and social security, China's retirement age system is expected to be perfected before 2025. So, in 2024, what retirement age systems are we implementing?

Firstly, there is the normal retirement age. The normal retirement age is quite straightforward; it is what we commonly refer to as female workers retiring at 50 or 55 years old, and male workers at 60 years old.

The relevant regulations are mainly based on the 1999 "Notice on Stopping and Correcting the Violation of National Regulations on the Early Retirement of Enterprise Employees" and the 1978 State Council Document No. 104, which includes the "Interim Measures on the Retirement and Resignation of Workers" and the "Interim Measures on the Placement of Old, Weak, Sick, and Disabled Cadres."

The retirement age for female workers is 50 years old. Since the focus is no longer on status but primarily on the position, in principle, non-management and non-professional and technical positions are considered as workers and can retire at the age of 50.

For female cadres or management personnel, professional and technical personnel, the retirement age is determined at 55 years old.

Additionally, the age at which female flexible employment personnel can receive their pensions is also 55 years old. This is mainly based on the 2001 "Notice on Perfecting the Basic Pension Insurance Policy for Enterprise Employees." At that time, the regulation also stated that female workers on contract in the agricultural sector could receive their pensions at 55 years old.

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In fact, the relevant institutional documents were established before or at the beginning of the establishment of China's pension insurance system, and it is indeed time to revise and improve them based on the development of the pension insurance fund.Secondly, there is the option of early retirement.

There are actually many situations in which early retirement can occur.

1. Early retirement for special types of work. This mainly applies to employees engaged in underground, high-altitude, high-temperature, particularly strenuous physical labor, or other jobs that are harmful to health. Male employees can retire at the age of 55, and female employees at the age of 45.

For early retirement due to special types of work, it is necessary to review the employee's file. Currently, all special types of work must be registered. This mainly applies to employees of state-owned enterprises who can retire early after registering according to regulations. It is not the case that one can retire early simply by believing they are engaged in special types of work or by having a special type of work stipulated in the labor contract. After all, many labor contracts in various units are not standardized and have not been recognized by authoritative departments.

Employees in special types of work, after consulting with their units, can retire at any time between the normal retirement age and the early retirement age. This is also the latest regulation implemented after 2018.

2. Early retirement due to loss of labor capacity. For those who have been certified by a hospital and confirmed by the labor capacity assessment committee to have completely lost their labor capacity, male employees can retire at the age of 50, and female employees at the age of 45. If the loss of labor capacity occurs before the relevant age, the treatment is to resign from the position.

This mainly refers to the loss of labor capacity due to illness, not work-related. If the loss of labor capacity is due to work, it falls under the category of work injury. Those with a disability level of 1 to 4 should leave their posts and receive disability allowances. If the retirement pension is lower than the disability allowance, the workers' compensation insurance fund will make up the difference.

Of course, workers with work-related injuries who meet the retirement conditions should also go through the retirement process. In theory, this is also at the age of 50 for males and 45 for females. Retirement is handled by the unit and does not require individual consent.

3. Early retirement for civil servants. According to the provisions of the Civil Servants Law, with personal application and approval by the appointing authority, those who have worked for more than 30 years or have worked for more than 20 years and are within 5 years of the retirement age can apply for early retirement.Due to the implementation of the pension insurance system reform by government institutions, the pension benefits are now based on the principle of "more contributions, more benefits" and "longer contributions, more benefits." Since civil servant positions are relatively stable and carry a lower risk of unemployment, considering the pension benefits, early retirement is definitely not cost-effective.

Overall, it is true that our retirement age system was established quite some time ago and has become incompatible with our current economic and social conditions. It is believed that improvements will be made before 2025. #Top Headline Creation Challenge#