MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei wants retirement age of Argentines raised

People who live up to the age of 90 retire too soon for the Libertarian government

The Argentine Government of President Javier Milei is reportedly planning to raise the retirement age of women to equate it with that of men, among other initiatives to be brought before Congress in the coming month by the newly-created May Council, a political committee provided for in a presidential decree last week after the “May Pact” signed earlier this month in Tucumán.

According to some Buenos Aires media, the Libertarian administration plans to bring the age threshold up from 60 and 65 (women and men) to 75 (both) in a move to rid the Anses (pensions bureau) from new disbursements in the short term. In addition to cutting down the number of pensioners, the government also intends to have more people with formal jobs to increase tax collection.

“Today people live to 90 years old and it represents a bigger expense than thirty years ago. Our ideal is to unify the retirement age for women and men at 75,” an official close to President Milei told TN. Political analysts consulted by MercoPress noted that ”they speak of 75 so whenever the new law is approved and it is only 70” people feel relieved instead of frustrated.

The Presidential advisors are also considering a return to a privately-administered retirement system like the one created in the 1990s (AFJPs) which was based on Chile's AFPs. It was suppressed under President Néctor Kirchner in the early 2000s.

The Government also intends to introduce a change to labor laws whereby union contributions become voluntary instead of compulsory, among other amendments such as further restrictions on the right to strike. Moreover, the Libertarian Government wants education declared an essential service, meaning it cannot be dropped citing labor issues.

If access to pensions is postponed, many Argentines face harder times ahead than thought because amid mounting unemployment monthly pensions were a way of mitigating these hardships. Leading pollsters agree that the lack of work and therefore of an income has become most people's main concern, thus displacing inflation from that dubious honor.

“With the change that happened in the last months, hand in hand with the drop in inflation, employment problems appear with more concern than prices, because it is visualized in some way that the index is attenuating and instead employment problems are growing,” pollster Federico Aurelio told Tiempo.

Paola Zuban of the consulting firm Zuban Córdoba noted that “Confidence in the economic plan is measured in expectations, but also in the material reality of people, that is to say, not only in how much they want but also in how much they can wait for the critical economic situation to improve. Almost 50% say they can't wait any longer.”