Retirement provision: Pension insurance report: Remuneration continues to rise

The salaries of around 21 million pensioners are likely to increase in the coming years. By 2037, pensions are expected to increase by a total of almost 43 percent, as can be seen from the 2023 pension insurance report that the Federal Cabinet in Berlin approved. This corresponds to an average increase rate of 2.6 percent per year.

It was previously known that a nationwide pension increase of around 3.5 percent was expected next July. As core data, the pension insurance report states that a reserve in the pension fund of around 44.5 billion euros is expected at the end of 2023. The contribution rate will therefore remain stable at 18.6 percent until 2027. By 2030, the contribution rate will rise to 20.2 percent as a result of the increasing number of baby boomers entering retirement. In 2037 the contribution rate should be 21.1 percent.

Pension insurance: Never before have so many people been employed

The President of the German Pension Insurance Association, Gundula Roßbach, viewed the report as evidence of the good status of the statutory pension. “The positive financial situation of the pension insurance is primarily due to the fact that the labor market is proving to be extremely robust,” Roßbach told the German Press Agency in Berlin.

With 46.04 million employees, there have never been as many people in employment as in the third quarter of 2023. Wages and salaries have also increased noticeably this year due to high collective bargaining agreements, said Roßbach. “In pension insurance income from employment subject to contributions, there was an increase of 5.4 percent for the months January to October 2023 compared to the same period last year.”

A spokesman for the Ministry of Labor pointed out that the forecasts did not yet take into account the plans for an announced pension reform.