Klaus Zimmermann discusses the “hypocrisy” of German pension proposals

IZA World of Labor’s Editor-in-Chief Klaus F. Zimmermann wrote an opinion piece in the UK’s Financial Times, outlining his views on Germany’s proposed pension reforms.

The German coalition government has announced proposals to vary pension payments and retirement ages in relation to several individual factors, which include a person’s year of birth, and number of working years.

Proposals attracting particular criticism include: boosting pension payments to mothers who took maternity leave for children born before 1992; and reducing the retirement age to 63 for those with at least 45 years of service.

Professor Zimmermann calls these plans “perverse”, and warns that the German government could be criticized for “double standards.”

Read his commentary here.  

Related article:
Redesigning pension systems, by Marek Gora