“Asking the French to work longer is an effort”, conceded Elisabeth Borne Thursday evening on France 2, “but if we do not carry out this reform, it is our distribution system which will not hold”. Guest of the political program “L’Evénement”, the Prime Minister stubbornly defended a pension reform that the government considers “indispensable”, citing the deficits which will “accumulate”, “year after year”.
A speech that is difficult to assimilate for millions of French people, at a time when only 56% of people aged 55 to 64 are employed, compared to 60.5% on average in the European Union, according to Eurostat data concerning the year 2021. Figures that worsen for seniors aged 60 to 64. “Over this generation, our employment rate is 33% (35.5% in 2021 according to DaresEditor’s note), while it is 60% in Germany and 70% in Sweden”, conceded the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, during a progress report on the pension reform.
While the reform, presented on January 10, plans to raise the retirement age to 64 and to extend the contribution period to 43 more quickly than expected, the government considers that the increase in the rate of employment of seniors is a “condition for the success” of the project.
This employment rate has already been rising steadily since 2000, due to successive pension reforms that lengthened contribution periods and then pushed back the eligibility age from 60 to 62 years. The phenomenon is even greater for 60-64 year olds, who are more affected by the reform: since the beginning of the century, the employment rate has increased by 8.9 points and the proportion of inactive people has fallen by 9, 6 points, underlines the Direction of the animation of research, studies and statistics (Dares).
“The legal retirement age is not the subject: the real problem is the employment of seniors”, recently told L’Express the economist Jean-Hervé Lorenzi, founder of the Demographic Transitions, Economic Transitions chair, attached to Sciences Po. In a study published in June, the experts from this chair came to the conclusion that the balance of the system could be achieved without affecting current age measurements. To fill the gap, it would suffice to increase the employment rate of seniors from 56 to 66%.
Some European countries have even greatly exceeded this objective, like Sweden (76.9%), or even Germany (71.8%). In 2021, France is thus only in 16th position among the 27 countries of the European Union. The employment rate for 60-64 year olds is also well below the European average (-10.9 points), while that for 55-59 year olds is just above it (+1.6 point).
Several factors explain this low rate. The first: in France, it is possible to benefit from a full-rate pension from the age of 62 if you have contributed enough, whereas in our European neighbours, the retirement age at the full rate is generally between 64 and 67 years old.
Then, there are in the country “devices which can be perceived as encouragement for employers to separate from seniors”, according to Olivier Dussopt. For example “the maximum duration of unemployment compensation” which can reach three years for those over 55 (against two years for those under 53). This duration of compensation will also be reduced by 25% by the government from February 1, for seniors as for other employees, as part of the reform of unemployment insurance.
In addition to these phenomena, the age of seniors refers “to a certain number of negative representations among recruiters”, such as “less adaptability” and “a time horizon limited by the proximity of retirement”, notes a study by Pôle Emploi on executives published in January 2022.
To boost the employment of seniors, the economist Jean-Hervé Lorenzi recommends “bringing together Medef, Afep and CPME as part of a large round table” to “force them to find solutions” and change mentalities. “Seniors are not only there to do tutoring: we have recruitment needs in digital or in education, and they can work very well in these areas,” he says, saying he is necessary to “make useful vocational training throughout life”.
Same story on the side of Eric Heyer, an economist at the OFCE who insists on the training of workers, an essential element for their “fulfillment” over time. “We should also review the “French” management, which is too rigid and vertical, so that employees remain fulfilled in their work until retirement age and remain productive”, he underlines in a interview at L’Express.
“Today, companies no longer want to employ older people because they represent too high a cost in relation to their productivity, and employees are happy to be able to obtain a conventional break, because they are worn out, tired or demotivated. ” We must therefore play on both the supply and demand for work, explains the economist. On the business side, either we stop automatically increasing wages with seniority, or we try to so that the decrease in productivity no longer exists, thanks to training.”
On the government side, we are instead considering coercive measures vis-à-vis companies that are reluctant to hire seniors. Thursday, Elisabeth Borne spoke for the first time of “sanctions” for those who “do not put in place an action plan to correct these bad practices”. Until then, the government bill simply asked companies with more than 300 employees to publish the share of seniors in their workforce.
However, this threshold could be lowered to 50 employees, as demanded by several majority deputies and as the government itself envisaged last year before the presentation of the reform in January by the Prime Minister. The latter has thus relied on the parliamentary debate “next week” to advance this “senior index” on various criteria.
