Women Didn’t Cause China’s Pension Crisis
Changing the mandatory retirement age is a good idea, but for equality reasons, not because of the savings shortfall.
Let them work longer.
Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
It’s rare that an economist becomes the target of a social media firestorm in China — or anywhere else. But just before the new year, Huang Qifan, a former mayor who now leads a think tank, made the audacious suggestion that China’s looming pension crisis can be fixed by raising the early retirement age for women. “Chinese women claim their retirement benefits 10 years before men do,” he said last month at a government-sponsored conference. “That means the country loses more than 200,000 yuan,” or $28,500, “to each woman every year.”
Unsurprisingly, China’s women pushed back, accusing Huang of trying to balance the country’s pension shortfalls on their backs. They’re right to feel offended — and so is Huang. For the past 40 years, China has required female workers to retire as much as a decade before their male colleagues. These rules not only undermine the solvency of China’s pensions, but also contribute to a widening workplace gender gap and reduced female workforce participation. Until China addresses these social inequalities, it can’t hope to boost growth enough to solve its fiscal problems.