With QPP changes, many Quebec workers push retirement age upwards

One-quarter now considering retirement after 70

With its March 17 budget, the Quebec government announced it planned to change employer and employee contribution rates to the Quebec Pension Plan. The new provisions would penalize those who retire before age 65 and benefit those who remain professionally active after that age.

As a result, one-third of provincial workers feel encouraged to remain in the workforce longer, according to a survey of 501 Quebec workers by the Ordre des conseillers en ressources humaines agréés.

Of those respondents inclined to continue working, 26 per cent said they were now considering retiring after age 70, versus nine per cent before the new measures were announced. On the other hand, while many workers (45 per cent) were considering retiring before age 65 prior to the March 17 budget announcement, only six per cent are now thinking along these lines. And the percentage of workers considering retiring between 66 and 69 shrunk from five per cent before the announcement to 20 per cent after the budget.

"Organizations will have to adjust their employee retention strategies to retain older employees. To keep these workers, they'll have to continue offering them development opportunities and challenges, as well as flexible conditions that take their situation into account," said Florent Francoeur, president and CEO of the Ordre des conseillers en ressources humaines agréés.

Prior to the introduction of the new measures, the average retirement age targeted was age 63, compared with today's figure of 66.7 — a difference of nearly four years — found the survey.

"The continued presence of more experienced employees on the labour market is a good thing because their know-how can contribute both to organizations' success and to Quebec's prosperity," said Francoeur.

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