this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
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Denmark is set to have the highest retirement age in Europe, after lawmakers voted to raise it to 70.

Parliamentarians passed a bill mandating the rise on Thursday, with 81 votes in favor and 21 against.

The new law will apply to people born after December 31, 1970. The current retirement age is 67 on average, but it can go up to 69 for those born on January 1, 1967, or later.

The rise is needed in order to be able to “afford proper welfare for future generations,” employment minister Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen said in a press release Thursday.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Denmark is set to have the highest retirement age in Europe, after lawmakers voted to raise it to 70.

In addition, Denmark has the highest top personal income tax rate in Europe in 2025, at 55.9%.

So I guess this is actually great news for everyone here that loves paying taxes, as now they get to do it even longer! Bummer all the people making a decent living off of these taxes (politicians) won't participate. Who could have seen that coming?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

It doesnt apply to politicians though....

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

Wtf Denmark

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Why do only the "later" generations get shafted though?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

Later generations have more time to prepare for retirement, rather than simply axing the benefits of the people that have already retired.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago

Cod e the people passing the law are probably in the earlier generations... They don't want to fuck themselves over

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I have very little confidence I'll get a retirement. Even though I'm contributing to the Canada Pension Plan, I'm so far away that by the time I get there I have serious doubts the program will still exist. There is obviously calculations they make to determine the health of the fund, but I don't think they are properly taking into account how much extra strain extended life expectancies will take on the program. If they plan for people to be on retirement for an average of 15 years, and suddenly that changes to 20 or 25 years, that fund will dry up quick. Combine that with the influx of boomer retirees and to me it doesn't look so good.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

We never know there could be a huge mega virus or giant mass cult death or something look on the bright side /s

[–] [email protected] 32 points 3 days ago

I don't think the shithead oligarchs who barely work a week outta the year should get to tell the working class how long they are forced to work.

And where do you expect them to work? No one is going to hire a 70 year old! (Except the US, bonus if they're a rapist and felon)

This is getting ridiculous...

[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 days ago

Work all your life to feed the pyramid pension scheme and when you finally retire, you're too old to do anything meaningful with your life.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago (2 children)

in this thread: Americans who have absolutely no idea what society looks like in Denmark. Or anywhere outside of the US actually.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

The channel Economics Explained actually covered Denmark on this weeks video essay. The impression that I got is that they really have their shit together, even these planned retirement age changes are expected to be gradual so people can plan for it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Most Europeans have a poor understanding of what the USA looks like as well... Turns out that most people have no idea what most of the rest of the world looks like! This could even mean inside of their own country! The USA is quite large and very much varied.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

For the topic of this thread in particular I see a lack of knowledge that the average lifespan in the US is a full four years shorter than in other comparable countries.

https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-life-expectancy-compare-countries/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

The USA is also significantly bigger than every single one of those "comparable" countries. Actually bigger (population, size, really just about any size metric possible) than all of them combined. It's a bit disingenuous to clump all of the USA together. Which fuels and proves my point about outsiders not understanding the USA.

The range in "comparable" countries is also about 4 years... Why do you think that is? I mean the countries are basically right next to each other like states are here... yet for some reason despite sharing a border Switzerland and Germany have a 4.1 year difference in male life expectancy.

I'm willing to bet money that different parts of the US, possibly even on a state by state or even region by region location would have wildly varying life expectancy than is being insinuated with a single monolithic number for "the USA"... Just like the EU countries listed here...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_life_expectancy

Turns out that is wildly true... The top 30 states all compete with the numbers given and fall within the ranges between Germany and Switzerland given in the charts in your link.

Edit:

If you drill down to counties.... which is at the very bottom of the wiki article. You can see even more disparity. And the only reason I bring this up is that some counties in the USA are bigger than entire as countries in the EU. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/largest-counties-in-the-united-states-by-total-area.html

There is issues with getting infrastructure EVERYWHERE when the country is just so damn big and sparse.

Edit2: I should clarify that I don't doubt that the EU overall is better off... Mostly because being fat is a huge problem in the USA that is much less prevalent than the EU overall. But just clumping shit willy nilly is exactly what I was referencing... Mississippi vs California is a world of difference.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

In Iceland we have massive pension funds where people pay for their own retirement.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 3 days ago (2 children)

So this rise for Denmark does not kick in on people born before 1970, so it does not count for baby boomers or the oldest and usually wealthiest sub set of Gen X. Oh, also Danish politicians can still retire at 60 right?

This is fairly typical with these age rises, applies to everybody BUT the largest group who have caused all the problem by being the largest group and who often haven't paid their fair share in a lot of schemes as a lot of state pension schemes are a Ponzi scheme rather than an actual investment fund, including the Danes as its paid directly out of taxation.

This means all the poor fucks who will now retire later will still be paying for that largest ever group to retire at an earlier age.

What is particularly insidious with this type of change is that the private pension age has also been raised for people in the UK. This means even if you can afford to you cant take it as early as you once could. Absolutely done because they will be means testing the UK state pension at some point.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Danish millennials and gen xers who work in retirement or old age support roles should change careers. And zers and alphas getting into it should consider hiatuses.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I generally think all politicians should be forced to retire from political work by at most 60yo.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

I agree, also term limits for all of them.

However its egregious for them to be raising the mandatory retirement age for everybody else while leaving their volentary retirement age where it is, and with a particularly fat pension, its about £4k a month for only twenty years of service.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I think the average lifespan in America is 67.

People would be truly working until death, there.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

79 in fact. Pretty low for a country that rich, but to find 69 you have to go to Africa or the poorest Latin or Asian countries.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

Try 78: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/life-expectancy.htm

Obviously not everyone reaches that. Even if you set the retirement age at 50, some people would die first.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I mean US retirement age is 67, so we're doing that already.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

I’m stashing cheap pistols around my house, so yes I’ve got a plan

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

Heh. "67 SO FAR" -- homer

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