Raising retirement age to 65 would help remove pension inequality, researchers say

The mainland's efforts to overhaul its pension scheme have drawn intense controversy, most recently over an academic report suggesting drastically raising the retirement age.

Under the current system, pensions may kick in when some workers turn 50, and payments range widely among different work sectors.

A sentiment of unfairness, coupled with pressures that are expected to arise as the population ages, has the Ministry of Labour and Human Resources scrambling to find the best solution to reform the scheme.

But in recent weeks, a research report proposing an increase in the retirement age triggered a public outcry. The study suggested revising the age of retirement up to 65 from the current minimum age of 50 for female factory workers and 60 for male workers and most employees at government and state-owned organisations.

The study, conducted by Tsinghua University and released last month, also proposed to phase out discrepancies in the pension amount paid among government employees, private-sector workers and those who were unemployed, and to put in place a single pension scheme for all by 2035.

The research was among several studies the government had commissioned to explore options for changing of the pension scheme.