Denmark to raise retirement age to 70 by 2040, highest in Europe
Danish workers reacted with scorn to the new rules, warning that they would be particularly tough for blue-collar workers in physically demanding jobs.
'[It's] unrealistic and unreasonable,' roofer Tommas Jensen, 47, told public broadcaster DR. 'We work and work and work, but we can't keep going.'
He added: 'I've paid my taxes all my life. There should also be time to be with children and grandchildren.'
The retirement regime has also been branded 'completely unfair' by Jesper Ettrup Rasmussen, the chairman of Denmark's confederation of trade unions.
'Denmark has a healthy economy and yet the EU's highest retirement age. A higher retirement age means that [people will] lose the right to a dignified senior life,' he said in comments reported by the BBC.
The retirement age is a sensitive subject in Europe, with higher life expectancy and budget deficits pushing each generation to work for longer than its predecessor.
As a result, Denmark's decision to have the highest retirement age somewhat contradicts its reputation as an exceedingly prosperous and comfortable Nordic state.
In neighbouring Sweden, pension benefits can still be claimed by citizens as young as 63. In France, there were mass protests and riots when Emmanuel Macron's Government imposed a law raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.
In the United Kingdom, those born between 1955 and 1960 generally start to receive their pension at 66, but the threshold gradually increases for those born after 1960.
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