Penalties for early retirement and incentives to delay them are showing their effects. In 2023, the average effective retirement age exceeded 65 years for the first time, standing at 65.1 years. It is an age higher than the 64.8 years in 2022 or the 64.7 in 2021. What is observed is that the real age at which workers retire has a constant upward trend from the 64.2 years that were recorded in 2019.
One of the keys to this delay in the actual average retirement age is that delayed retirements increased significantly. It has increased to 8.4% in 2023, compared to 5.4% the previous year. The effects of the delay incentives put in place to delay the moment of retirement are noticeable. On the other hand, in the opposite direction, early retirements are being reduced. Last year they accounted for 34.3% of total discharges, while if we go back to 2018 they exceeded 43%.
These are data provided this morning on social networks by the Secretary of State for Social Security, Borja Suárez, who stated that “the measures that have been implemented and the substantial improvement in the labor market, thanks to the labor reform , contribute to strengthening the public pension system.”
In this way, the total number of people who accessed retirement in 2023 in the Social Security system was 326,949, which represents a slight decrease compared to 2022 (327,872).
One of the first measures taken to delay the retirement age was the delay in the retirement age, which is being implemented progressively and which should lead in 2027 to the ordinary retirement age remaining at 67 years. In this progressive delay of the legal age to retire, currently workers can retire at 66 years and six months, although there is an exception for those who may do so at 65 years if they have contributed a minimum of 38 years to Social Security. .
But what has proven most effective are the incentives to delay retirement, pensions that, as we have mentioned, increased in 2023. Incentives that were introduced in the pension reform carried out in the previous legislature, and that prevail with an additional 4% percentage on the amount of the corresponding pension or a lump sum amount that is paid in a single payment. They are two incentives that can be combined at the interested party's choice depending on their interests. It is a strategy focused on facing the challenge of the retirement of the baby boom generation, which is more numerous and has more income, which represents a challenge to the stability of the pension system.
In the pension spending projections report published by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration to comply with the Recovery Plan, the Government estimates that the average retirement age will rise by 1.6 years in 2050.
In this way, it would be around 65.5 years. It would be an effect of the incentives included in the pension reform to encourage delaying retirement and the elimination of forced retirement clauses from collective agreements.
