Putin to ‘Raise’ Retirement Ages

They say everything is relative. With his country having budget woes due to lower petroleum prices and sanctions over the Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that he may be forced to “raise” retirement ages. Wait until you see what the ages are now!

Yahoo News quotes an AFP release that says that President Putin is looking at current retirement ages that were set in 1932, around the time of our own Social Security Act in 1935. The Russians had set men’s retirement age at 60 and women’s retirement age at 55! And workers in dangerous occupations have even lower retirement ages.

These may seem startlingly low, especially to many Americans who may now have to wait until 66 (give or take a month) or 67 (if born after 1960) to gain full retirement benefits. However, according to the Social Security Administration, our base retirement age of 65 (for those born in 1937 or earlier) was set by actuarial tables and the age in most of the states that had their own “old-age pension systems” in the 1930s.

However, it seems the increasing life expectancy of Russian workers, which the article states has risen to 65 for men and 76 for women, has not yet been addressed by raising the ages, nor has the fact that women will be living approximately 9 years longer than men been addressed with having the retirement age for women 5 years younger.

And why is there still a gender difference? Looks like several countries formerly in the Soviet Union continue to have separate retirement ages for men and women.

The article says that international institutions such as the World Bank have advised Russia to address the burden that these retirement ages pose to the country’s economy, especially with wages declining about 10 percent.

But, in what is perhaps an attempt to cut off any complaints from the public on this issue, Russian lawmakers have proposed raising their own retirement age to 65!