Several nations make raising the retirement age a significant policy change. It has many advantages and disadvantages. Nevertheless, in my opinion, the pros outweigh the cons.
The main advantages associated with raising the retirement age relate to life expectancy. Such people in the modern age live healthier lives compared to previous generations and therefore can be pushed to work at older ages and hence stabilize.
Many countries, including Japan and Germany, whose populations of the aged are on the rise rely on working-age extension as an effort to diminish pension schemes so that the economy will become sustainable over the long run.
It has additional advantages in retaining older employees on the payroll. Besides providing experience and skill sets, older employees have also become mentors who could add to the output by mentoring other employees while developing an even more balanced and integrated work environment. Some of the companies are keenly adopting this retention, like IBM and Unilever, which offers flexibility and comfort to those aged employees in exchange for experience.
However, there are also disadvantages. Most jobs are very hard on the body, and an expanded working life may be correlated with more health impairments in older workers. In addition, young people will face fewer opportunities in the labor market as older workers work longer. This can lead to intergenerational conflict. While increasing the retirement age does have drawbacks, the benefits are very strong in terms of workforce experience and economic sustainability. As long as proper mechanisms exist to support older workers while providing fair job opportunities to the younger generation, these benefits may be reaped without the downsides being realized.