Legal age, contribution period, small pensions: the key points of the pension reform

legal age

The legal retirement age will be raised from 62 to 64, at the rate of 3 months per year from September 1, 2023 until 2030.

This two-year increase "will concern all workers, employees, self-employed and civil servants", insisted the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, when she unveiled the content of the reform on January 10.

However, disabled workers will still be able to retire from the age of 55, and those on disability at 62.

Contribution period

To obtain a “full rate” pension (without discount), the required contribution period will increase from 42 years (168 quarters) currently to 43 years (172 quarters) by 2027, at the rate of one quarter per year.

This extension was provided for by the Touraine reform of 2014, but on a less tight schedule, with an additional quarter every three years until 2035.

The cancellation of the discount will remain at age 67 for those who do not have all the required quarters.

Small pensions

The pensions of future retirees with a "full career" (43 years in the long term) cannot be less than 85% of the Smic, or around 1.200 euros gross per month at the time of the entry into force of the reform.

Current retirees who meet the same criteria will also benefit from this revaluation. This should concern nearly two million small pensions, according to the government.

Employment of seniors

A "senior index" will be created to better understand "the place of employees at the end of their career", and thus "value good practices and denounce bad ones". It will be compulsory "from this year" for companies with more than 1.000 employees, a threshold lowered to 300 employees in 2024. Recalcitrant employers will be liable to financial penalties.

The rules for combining employment and retirement will be modified so that retirees resuming a professional activity improve their pensions, taking into account the additional quarters worked.

Phased retirement, which allows you to spend two years part-time before retiring while receiving part of your pension, will be "flexible" and extended to civil servants.

Long careers

Those who started working early will always be able to leave earlier. Currently, starting a career before the age of 20 can allow an early retirement of two years, and entering the workforce before the age of 16 can give the right to an early retirement of four years.

This device will be "adapted" with a new "intermediate level": those who started before the age of 20 will be able to leave two years earlier, i.e. 62 years old; those who started before the age of 18 will be able to claim their right to retirement four years earlier, ie 60; those who started before the age of 16 will be able to end their career six years earlier, i.e. 58 years. In this way, no one will be "forced to work over the age of 44", according to the government.

Periods of parental leave will in future be taken into account, which will be "more just for women", according to the government.

painfulness

The professional prevention account already taking into account night work and other hardship criteria may be used to finance professional retraining leave.

Other criteria such as the carrying of heavy loads, painful postures and mechanical vibrations will be taken into account by means of a new "investment fund in the prevention of professional wear and tear", which will be endowed with a billion euros "over the five-year term". A specific fund will be created for the staff of hospitals, retirement homes and other medico-social establishments.

Among civil servants, the “active categories” including in particular the police, firefighters and nursing assistants will retain their right to early departure, given their “exposure to risks”.

Special diets

Most of the existing special schemes, including those of the RATP, the electricity and gas industries and the Banque de France, will be put into extinction, according to the "grandfather clause" already implemented at the SNCF: this will not concern than new recruits, who will be affiliated to the general pension scheme.

Reminder of the main dates of the project which follows a first attempt at a more ambitious pension reform, carried out during the first five-year term and stopped by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Covid shutdown

On March 16, 2020, Emmanuel Macron announced the suspension of "all the reforms in progress", due to the Covid-19 pandemic, including an ambitious pension reform providing for a universal points system, and which had aroused strong opposition.

On July 2, the Head of State said that there would be no abandonment of the reform, but a "transformation" after consultation.

On July 13, 2021, Mr. Macron assures us that the pension reform will be initiated "as soon as the sanitary conditions are met". In November, he postpones the reform to 2022.

Legal age at 65

At the end of 2021, Emmanuel Macron reiterates his desire to reform pensions, but evokes "a simplified system with three major schemes, one for the public service, one for employees, one for the self-employed".

Re-elected in 2022 after committing during the campaign to "shift the legal retirement age to 65" against 62 so far, he calls on July 14 for "responsible compromises" with a view to an entry effective summer 2023.

Consultations

Faced with virulent opposition from the unions, Emmanuel Macron asked the government on September 22 to "find the right maneuver" for a "peaceful" reform.

In early October, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne initiated consultation with the social partners for, she hopes, an adoption "before the end of winter".

Macron "open"

On October 26, Emmanuel Macron said he was "open" to a legal starting age of 64, instead of 65.

But he insists on December 3: "working longer" is "the only lever" to meet "massive financing needs".

The presentation of the reform has been postponed until January to allow time for the social partners and political parties to “discuss” with the executive on this project.

Elisabeth Borne consults all over the place, in December, in particular to try to reconcile the right and the CFDT.

64 years

Elisabeth Borne unveils the reform on January 10, the flagship measure of which is the postponement of the legal retirement age, to 64 years by 2030, against 62 so far.

United front of trade unions against the project: the eight main organizations immediately call for a first day of demonstrations and strikes on January 19.

Massive mobilization

Demonstrations throughout France, strikes followed at school, in energy or transport: the unions succeeded on January 19 in mobilizing massively against the reform.

"More than two million" people demonstrated in more than 200 processions, including around 400.000 in Paris, according to the CGT. The Ministry of the Interior counts 1,12 million demonstrators, including 80.000 in the capital.

The unions immediately announced a new day of action, January 31, to try to roll back the government.