CC by bartmaguireToday (May 15, 2011), ACRI presented the public committee that examines the issue of women’s retirement age with a detailed position paper in which it expresses it objection to raising that age from 62 to 64. The opposition is based on the fact that many women are ejected from the labor market even before the retirement age as it is, and raising it will, therefore, make them lose their rights to pensionary and other benefits for two more years.
According to data presented to the committee in a previous position paper, the Mahut Center, the Forum for the Promotion of a Multi-Age Workforce, and the Women’s Forum for Equal Budgets stated that while most Israelis usually begin to work regularly while in their 20’s, more women lose their place on the labor market even before the existing retirement age, so much so that nearly half the Israeli women in the 45-64 age bracket are in a state of deep unemployment (which lasts more than 270 days).
Clearly, raising the age of retirement without directly dealing with the gender/age discrimination will not benefit the Israeli women, to say the least. It will actually acutely impair on many women’s ability to make a living, and will not promote their ability to acquire pensionary privileges. The committee is, therefore, asked to suspend its intention to raise the retirement age at this time and, instead, allocate resources to quelling the inequality on the labor market and to developing opportunities for more women to better and more properly find their place on the labor market. The association feels that these moves will provide women with economic and employment security, and improve their equality in the society from an early to a later age.
