German government advisors propose a significant pension system reform; employees could in the future work until the age of 73.

The German advisory council at the Ministry of Economic Affairs has proposed a comprehensive pension reform that would automatically link the retirement age to life expectancy. According to the proposal, two thirds of each additional year of life would be added to working life, while the remaining third would extend the period of enjoying retirement. The aim of the proposal is to preserve the sustainability of public finances under conditions of an aging population and weak productivity growth.

The authors of the proposal, economists Veronika Grimm, Justus Haucap, Stefan Kolev and Volker Wieland, do not provide specific figures in their report, but instead offer projections based on medium assumptions. According to one of them, the retirement age could reach around 69 years in the early 2070s, while some sources, such as the newspaper Bild, speculate that the limit could rise to as much as 73 years around 2060 with automatic adjustment of the age to expected life expectancy.

The German economy has been stagnating for years compared with comparable countries, primarily due to weak productivity growth and unfavorable demographics, so in order to preserve the scope of social benefits, citizens would have to work longer. Denmark is mentioned as an example of a successful model, whose parliament in May 2025 made a decision to increase the retirement age to 70 by 2040. The Danish system also contains a built-in mechanism that automatically adjusts the age limit in line with changes in life expectancy for generations born after 1970.

This proposal in Germany opens a new debate about the balance between a longer working life and ensuring a dignified old age, which is becoming one of the key issues of future economic policy.