Response from Berlin

Many myths about life in Germany have begun to be dispelled in recent years, and one of them concerns the comfortable life of German retirees.

According to new figures that come to light after a question from the “Left” party in the German parliament, 1.3 million German pensioners (out of a total of about 18.6 million) are working in addition to the pension they receive. More than a million pensioners even work in officially declared “minijobs”.

Specifically, these figures concern 2022 and are derived from the official German pension provider, as first reported by the Ippen journalistic group.

However, these data do not cause any surprise. As German media point out, the average pension in Germany after completing at least 35 years of insurance amounts to approximately 1,400 euros and depends on each case on earnings, length of professional employment and the payment of the required contributions to the insurance funds. In Germany the retirement age is 65 and for those born from 1964 onwards, 67.

There are many reasons for working after retirement

A recent study by the German Institute for Labor Market and Employment Research (IAB) attempts to analyze the reasons that push more and more pensioners in Germany to work. According to the results of the survey, 90% of the respondents state the “joy” offered by work as well as “contact with other people” as the main reason, and fewer mention financial factors as the main motivation.

However, as Zilke Unger, one of the authors of the study, explains in the taz newspaper, even if the money offered by a supplementary income does not seem to be the main motivation for working after retirement, the risk of poverty in old age due to low pensions remains a real problem in Germany.

As Anger points out, many pensioners in Germany are forced to get through the month with little money. According to data from the Federal Statistical Office, four out of ten pensioners have to live on a net income of less than 1,250 euros per month, when rents and the cost of living in Germany have risen significantly in recent years.

Of the nearly 7.5 million pensioners, who are considered most vulnerable, 5.2 million are women. The German expert also mentions that according to the IAB study “one in five pensioners in Germany who are not working, would like to find some kind of employment”.