Minister Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz's proposal to link the retirement age to parenthood has sparked a heated debate. An expert warns that while equalising the retirement age for women and men could be justified, tying it to having children risks discriminating against those who cannot become parents for health or personal reasons.
The Minister of Funds and leader of Poland 2050 has consistently advocated for equalising the retirement age for women and men. In a recent interview with "Wirtualna Polska", she suggested that the retirement age could depend on whether a person has children. "Perhaps if a woman has children, then the retirement age is different. And if she doesn't have children – and today every second young woman most often makes that life choice, that she has no children – then she should have the same retirement system as men," she said.
Currently, women in Poland retire at 60 and men at 65. Oskar Sobolewski, an expert from HRK Payroll Consulting, told "Fakt" that equalising the retirement age is well justified, especially since Polish women have the lowest retirement age in the European Union.
A controversial link between parenthood and pensions
Sobolewski, however, strongly cautioned against tying the retirement age to the number of children. – We must remember that some people cannot have children, and therefore they would be additionally disadvantaged in this situation – he emphasised. He argued that the pension should be primarily linked to work and the total contributions paid throughout a person's professional career.
The expert's remarks highlight a key flaw in the proposal: it could penalise individuals who are childless not by choice but due to infertility, illness, or other circumstances beyond their control.
Expert: Work, not children, should determine retirement
According to Sobolewski, any reform of the retirement system should focus on fairness based on labour market participation. – The amount of money we pay in over our entire professional activity should be the main factor determining our pension – he said. He suggested that simply equalising the retirement age would be a more just and transparent solution than introducing complex criteria related to family size.
The debate comes as Poland faces demographic challenges and a strained pension system. While the minister's intention may be to support parents and boost birth rates, critics argue that linking retirement rights to parenthood creates an unfair two-tier system.
Źródło: wnp.pl, Fot. PAP/Piotr Nowak
