Will The Retirement Age Be Raised For Women?

The authorities are boasting that they have brought the system to a standstill.

In Belarus, labor compensation will increase starting September 1—by an average of 5 percent. Against this backdrop, the so-called senator Andrei Krivonosov offered his thoughts on the reasons behind the increase and the factors driving it. “Our pension system is based on solidarity and mutual aid—the working generation supports those who have already laid the foundation for today’s prosperity,” the senator stated. Some experts believe that this principle of pension payments has reached an impasse amid a shrinking and aging population, and that the authorities may decide to raise the retirement age for Belarusian women.

The website Charter97.org reviewed what is currently known about a possible increase in the retirement age.

A two-year increase in the retirement age?

Sources at the TV channel "Belsat" claim that a gradual increase will begin in 2026. And while the previous increase in the retirement age added half a year each year, the plan now is to raise it by a full year at a time: one year in 2026 and another in 2027. Thus, in two years, women are expected to retire at age 60, and men at age 65.

Will Belarusian women have to work longer?

Economist Lev Lvovsky believes that the retirement age for women may be raised in the near future—bringing it in line with that of men. This would mean that both men and women would retire at age 63.

“This situation will hold until 2030. But I hope Belarus will continue to exist beyond 2030, beyond 2050, and for a long time to come. And the further we go, the more problems there will be with demographics and the population,” the economist warns.

Belarusians Are Aging

Human rights activist Leonid Sudalenko named the main reasons for a possible increase in the retirement age:

— The number of people of retirement age is growing, while the number of young workers is shrinking. I recently saw a report about schools in Gomel: in some places, there aren’t even enough children to form classes. This points to a declining birth rate. If women don’t have children, the population will age, and the labor force won’t be replenished.

Add to that emigration. Following the mass repressions of 2020, a huge number of qualified professionals left the country—not only medical professionals, but also people from other sectors. As a result, we have a labor shortage. There is a particularly acute shortage of workers in blue-collar and technical professions—people who work “on the shop floor.” Economists and lawyers, on the other hand, are in surplus.

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