Swiss cabinet opposes campaign to link retirement age to lifespan

The Swiss government opposes a campaign to gradually raise the retirement age to 66 and peg it to life expectancy, it said on Wednesday, preferring its own plan to reform the wealthy nation's pension system as a wave of baby boomers stops working.

The Swiss government opposes a campaign to gradually raise the retirement age to 66 and peg it to life expectancy, it said on Wednesday, preferring its own plan to reform the wealthy nation's pension system as a wave of baby boomers stops working. The campaign launched under the Swiss system of direct democracy would gradually raise the retirement age for both men and women to 66. It is now 65 for men and 64 for women.

"Linking the retirement age to life expectancy takes neither the socio-political nor the labour market situation into account," the cabinet said in a statement. Such an automatic step would also clash with the Swiss political system. Swiss voters are already scheduled to decide on Sept. 25 whether to approve the government's own plan, which would unify the retirement age at 65 and raise value-added tax rates to help fund state pensions.

Voters in 2017 shot down efforts to raise the retirement age for women.

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