Analysis of the Delayed Retirement Policy from the Perspective of Labor Systems

The necessity and institutional design of delayed retirement should be explored from the dual perspectives of the horizontal social age structure and the vertical individual life cycle. The former involves changes in the population age structure, dependency ratios, and the resulting pressures on social pension systems and pension fund accounts. This is the primary perspective adopted by current academic research on delayed retirement. The latter concerns the alignment between individuals' life cycles and working cycles, where delayed retirement essentially addresses the mismatch between progressively longer life spans and current working cycles. The existing labor system, which dichotomizes work and life, further exacerbates this mismatch. This paper considers the retirement system as an integral part of the labor system and explores its fundamental principles for adapting to modern society from the perspective of labor system evolution. Specifically, it proposes comprehensive planning for workers' employment throughout their life cycles and suggests increasing the participation of older workers in social labor through enhanced social coordination and community collaboration. Consequently, this paper offers feasible and complementary social security measures to support the implementation of delayed retirement policies.