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08/05/2026 August 5, 2026 German employers warn against U-turn on early retirement A German employer group has sharply criticized calls to preserve the country's early
08/05/2026 August 5, 2026 German employers warn against U-turn on early retirement A German employer group has sharply criticized calls to preserve the country's early retirement scheme as debate grows over a proposed overhaul of the pension system. A government-appointed pension commission presented 33 proposals in June, including abolishing the option of retiring without deductions for people who have paid into the system for particularly long periods.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) leadership initially said they wanted to implement the package as closely as possible to the commission's recommendations. However, several state premiers from both Merz's conservative Christian Democratic Union and the SPD have since pushed back against parts of the plan, with particularly strong criticism coming from eastern Germany. Steffen Kampeter, head of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations, told the Bild newspaper that Germany would not be able to protect jobs and remain competitive without reforming the welfare state.
"I am stunned that central elements of the pension package are already being called into question before they have even been implemented," Steffen Kampeter, head of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations, told the Bild newspaper. "Anyone who at the same time sticks to retirement from 63 is ignoring the shortage of skilled workers, demographic change and the economic situation," he said. He warned that watering down the reforms could squander "perhaps the last chance" to make the pension system sustainable as Germany's population ages.
"A future-proof pension system needs more employment, more contributors and solid financing - not ever more promises at the expense of the younger generation," Kampeter said.
The BriefWire