Retirement age to be raised to 64, employers encouraged to start planning early
In a move to support our senior workers, Singapore’s retirement age will be raised to 64 in 2026.
Accordingly, the re-employment age will be raised to 69 in that year.
Employers were encouraged to start planning early to retain their senior workers.
Retirement age raised to protect seniors from being prematurely dismissed
The raising of the retirement age by one year was announced in Parliament on Monday (4 Mar) by Manpower Minister Tan See Leng.
Speaking at the Committee of Supply Debate 2024, Minister of State for Manpower Gan Siow Huang elaborated on the change, saying seniors who want to work longer will be protected from being dismissed due to their age.
That means from 2026, workers can be asked to retire only when they turn 64 years old.
Employers must also offer re-employment to eligible staff until the age of 69.
Retirement age was last raised in 2022
Ms Gan said the move will bring Singapore another step closer to the eventual goal — a retirement age of 65 and a re-employment age of 70 by 2030.
Back in 2019, the Tripartite Workgroup on Older Workers recommended that Singapore’s retirement and re-employment ages be changed in a step-by-step process.
Source: Ministry of Manpower
Thus in 2022, the retirement age was raised to 63 and the re-employment age was raised to 68.
Four years after that, both statutory ages will go up again by one year.
Employers encouraged to plan early to retain senior workers
In light of this move, Ms Gan encouraged employers to start planning early.
Some employers will need to adjust their manpower and upskilling plans so they can retain their senior workers, she said.
That’s the reason why the Government has announced the raise in retirement age early, she added.
This is also to ensure the next increase is implemented smoothly.
Considerable support for raising the retirement age
There is considerable support for raising the retirement and re-employment ages.
In a survey conducted last year, 90% of Singaporeans aged above 50 supported the raising of both ages above 63 and 68 respectively.
Over nine in 10 eligible senior workers who wanted to continue working were offered re-employment in 2023, Ms Gan said.
Singapore is in third place based employment rate for seniors aged 65 to 69 among countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The rate went up from 43.8% in 2018 to 48.3% in 2023, an increase of almost 5 percentage points, she added.
The employment rate also rose among younger seniors (aged 55 to 64) in the same period, going up from 66.8% to 70.0%.
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