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" Laud to retirement age at 65 "
The
Hong Kong populat ion has
passed a critical demographic
tipping point and is ageing rapidly . Though
the trend has been apparent since 1991,
the HK Government as usual is ill- prepared
and slow to react . According to the Census
and Statistics Department, the proportion
of older persons aged 65 and over in the
population is projected to increase from
an estimated 13% in 2009 to 28 percent
in 2039. Likewise, our life expectancy will
increase to 83.7 years for men and 90.1 for
women by 2039, compared with 79.8 years
for men and 86.1 years for women in 2009.
At the same time, the ratio of our elderly
dependents to the working population will
nearly triple from 171 per 1,000 persons
of working age last year to 454 in 2039.
HK’s low mandatory retirement age ( Civil
servants retire at 60 and semi-public and
non-government organisations follow suit )
in the face of an aging population is expected
to have a negative impact on HK’s economy,
labour force as well as the community . The
Panel on Public Service reported in April
2012 that the civil servants in the 40-59
age group represents about 2/3 of the total
workforce in 2009-2010 , consequently
the number of retirees would double at
around 6,800 in the 5-year period ending
2019-2020 compared with the 5-year period
ending 2009-2010 . Alarm bells also rang
over the mass retirement of experienced
doctors born in the baby-boomers years
from public health service in the coming
10 years, with dire consequences to the
standard of medical care .Given that the
age profile of the civil servants mirrors that
of the HK working population, the same
desperate scenario is expected to play out
in all other professions .
Human resources are the only natural
resources HK has. A shrinking work force
relative to overall population inevitably
leads to a slowdown in HK’s economic
development , ending up in long-term
stagnation and decreased competitiveness,
not to ment ion less tax-payers means
reduced government income tax revenue
. Dr Jean Woo, professor of medicine and
head of the division of Geriatrics at the
Chinese University, advices the best way
to sustain economic growth in the existing
circumstances is to “mobilise all available
labour resources”.”Older people represent
enormous potential for the economy and
society,” Woo says.
From a society’s point of view, ear ly
retirement is an extraordinary waste of
expertise. HK people are educated at great
expense to the society, it is just plain bad
pol icy to make people who are highly
educated and experienced to stop working
when they still have much to offer , and to
turn from being tax-payers to be supported
by tax-payers simply because of an arbitarily
set benchmark of 60 for retirement . In short
our society is planning for the average
person to spend 20 or more years being
economically inactive, to become dependent
on social security assistance which leads
to escalating health and welfare services
expenditure.
Over the years HK has changed from labour-
intensive to a knowledge-based economy
composed of a highly skilled workforce .
With a longer life expectancy, people at
the age of 60 are generally still physically,
mentally and intellectually fit, and as most
jobs in a knowledge economy do not entail
manual labour, most people in HK are in fact
capable of working well beyond the age of
60 . Surveys ( including the one done by
CUSA ,May 2011) have shown HK people
generally prefer to work for longer time in
order to save more, rather than becoming
overly-dependent on society, and strongly
bel ieve that the government should
mandatory increase the retirement age .
This is echoed by Christine Loh Kung-wai,
the chief executive of Civic Exchange think-
tank and a member of the Committee on
Social Development and Quality of Life,
who urged the government to “get people to
switch their mindset” and develop a “culture
of retaining older workers”
Extending the ret i rement age i s an
international trend : the United States,
the United Kingdom, the European Union,
Japan and Singapore have all adopted
various forms of flexible retirement schemes
to utilize the human capital of their elderly
workforce. HSBC global Forum on Aging
and Retirement says : aging population
must be seen as an opportunity rather
than a threat because of the fact that age
-diverse workforces are good for business
, They found “ a store staffed with older
people achieved an 18% increase in profit,
39% reduction in absenteeism and 59%
less product loss .” In the United States,
for example, a study found that postponing
retirement of the baby boomers will generate
$12.9 trillion increase in GDP by 2025.
Another study in Canada estimated that if
the effective retirement age were increased
from its 2001 level (61.2) to 65, real GDP
per capita could be 12 percent higher in
the long run.
The concern of financial implications by
the extension of retirement age to 65 is
easily dealt with by performance-related
pay, and the impart on job opportunities
and promotion prospect of young people
is fortunately not a problem in HK because
of the low birth rate, not to mention as
Asia- Pacific will be the centre of economic
growth with India and China the leading
economies in the coming 29 years ; there
will be ample opportunities for all.
How the higher institutions in HK react
to this social economic crisis reflects the
level of progressive thinking and social
consciousness of the respective senior
management . City University, Lingnan
University and the University of Science and
Technology already have a retirement age
of 65 . Professors and Staff Associations
at the University of Hong Kong, Chinese
Universi ty, Polytechnic Universi ty and
Baptist University have repeatedly called for
their universities to end the “ageist policy”of
forced retirement at 60 and to follow the
lead of three other universities, “ but it is
like talking to a brick wall”( direct quote :
South China Morning Post, May23, 2011 ).
What is certain is HK cannot afford to
procrastinate over this pressing issue .
Our future is at stake .
香港
人口已超越人口統計學上關鍵性的引爆
點，並且迅速老化。雖然這趨勢自1991
年已很明顯，但香港政府卻如常地沒絲毫準備，反應
緩慢。根據香港政府統計處資料，65歲或以上的老年
人人口比例不斷上升， 2009年佔13%，預測2039
年將升至28% 。 同樣，2009年的男性預期壽命是
79.8歲，女性86.1歲， 到2039年男性預期壽命增
至83.7歲，而女性則增至90.1歲。同時，受撫養老
年人口與工作人口比例將增長近三倍， 由去年的每
1000對比171人，至2039年每1000人對比454 人。
香港的強制性低退休年齡(公務員60歲退休。而半
公立和資助組織也是相同)，對一個正處於人口老化
的香港經濟、勞動力以及社會將有負面影響。但在
2012年4月出版的公務員及資助機構員工事務委員
會報告指出，40-59歲年齡組別的公務員於2009-
2010年度為整體公務員三分二，相對於2005-2010
年，2015-2020年內退休人數將倍增至6800人。另
外，大批生於嬰兒潮年代的資深醫生在未來十年亦將
陸續由公共醫療服務退休，情況已響起警號，對整個
醫療服務水準有不良後果。
人力資源是香港唯一的天然資源。續步遞減的工作
人口難免會拖慢香港經濟發展，引至長期停滯，競
爭力下降，再者納稅人數減少，而導致政府庫房收
入萎縮就更不在話下。中文大學老年學及老人病學
胡令芳教授指出，在現時情況來說，持續發展的最
佳方法是“動員所有的勞動力…年長者對經濟與社
會皆有龐大潛力”。
從社會角度來看，提早退休極度浪費專才知識。社
會投入大量資源教育港人，隨意把60歲定作退休年
齡為基準，阻止這些受過高深教育、經驗豐富，有
工作能力的人繼續工作，強行把他們由納稅人改變
為被納稅人撫養，無疑是一項失敗的政策。簡而言
之，我們的社會計劃部署每個港人將有20年或更長
的時間投閒置散，倚靠社會保障，為醫療及社會福
利開支增加壓力。
多年來，香港已從一個勞動密集經濟轉形向知識形經
濟發展，現時港人一般具備高度熟練技術，隨著人口
長壽， 一般60歲的人士都有健康身體，並會精神與
智力具備，由於知識經濟並不涉及體力勞動，很多
港人的工作能力可遠遠超過60歲。各項調查（包括
CUSA 2011年5月的調查）顯示香港人普遍選擇工作
更多年，多些儲蓄，不願過分依賴社會，他們明確表
示政府應強制性調高退休年齡。公共政策智囊組織思
匯政策研究所行政總監以及社會發展及生活質素委員
會委員陸恭蕙女士也持相同意見，她催促政府“使人
們改變思維”並發展一套“保留年長員工的文化”。
延長退休年齡是國際趨勢：美國、英國、歐聯、日
本及新加坡等國均設有不同的彈性退休基制促進利
用老年勞動人口中的人力資源。匯豐全球老年與退
休會議提出：需要將高齡化人口視為機會，並非威
脅，因為年齡多元化的勞動人口對行商有利，他們
舉例“店裏有年長員工可以有18% 利潤增加，曠工
情況少39%，貨品失竊少59%。在美國，一項調查
發現假如延遲嬰兒潮出生人士的退休年齡，到2025
年美國GDP將增加12.9萬億。加拿大的同類調查估
計假如退休年齡由2001 年（61.2）延長至65，長
遠來說平均國民GDP 可上升12%。
延長退休年齡到65歲所引伸的財政憂慮不難處理，
如表現與工資掛鈎，在香港年青人的工作和晉升機
會不會因退休年齡延長而受影響，因為香港的低出
生率，再者亞太地區將會是經濟發展的主要中心，
與印度和中國在未來29年同屬領先經濟體系，所有
人都有充分機會發展。
香港的高等院校如何回應社會經濟危機亦反映出校方
高層管理的進取思維及社會意識。城大，嶺南及科技
大學早已設定65歲為退休年齡。港大，中大，理工，
浸會的教職員組織不斷重複向其校方倡議及早跟隨其
他三所進取的院校，取消“年齡歧視政策”即硬性規
定60歲為退休年齡，“但這猶如對牆壁說話”（引自
南華早報，2011年5月23日）。
在這迫切問題上，香港確實不能繼續拖延，因我們的
未來已達危急關頭﹗
支持延長法定退休年齡至65歲
郭園 Memie Kwok 翻譯 : 劉麗芝