Retirement Opportunities between United States of America and Germany

This paper compares and contrasts retirement opportunities between United States of America and Germany. Comparing many retirees in the U.S. to other retirees in wealthy countries such as Germany can be a bit challenging following the dissimilarities that exist in terms of various recent pension reforms, the retirement age and private and public benefit programs (Edelman, 2014).  Since retirement is a contemporary concept, various parts of the world do not include it in their life course.

Comparing retirement opportunities in the US to those in Germany, both nations have public pension systems that are based on pay-as-you-go platform. These systems have a resulting sensitivity to changes in the distribution of age, which has been the center of focus in many debates regarding population aging. Therefore, both nations ensure that their workers whose income is little are supplied with minimum level retirement earning (Ezra & Collie, 2009). In addition, both nations ensure that their workers are broadly covered by social security. 

However, it is, also, essential to note that United States and Germany have substantial differences in their retirement opportunities. In Germany the law subjects a quarter of the labor force to mandatory retirement age of 65, and this applies to both the private and public sectors (Attorney, 2015). In the context of Unites States, mandatory retirement is prohibited by age discrimination laws. Secondly, Germany restricts part-time jobs for retirees more than the US because of high infringement benefits and inflexible work regulations. Thirdly, even though private pensions augment the public retirement systems in both nations, they are not a substantial retirement income source in Germany, yet they play a major role in the United States (Attorney, 2015).

The first government policy that can promote positive retirement outcome for all American is expansion of social security. This will assist the government to provide a larger proportion of preretirement income as compared to the current OASI. Secondly, the government should expand 401(K) in order to encourage more private savings (Ezra & Collie, 2009). Payroll deduction dependent programs attract a higher flow of contributions than those ones that rely on voluntary contributions.     In conclusion, both Germany and the United States have public pension systems that are based on pay-as-you-go platform. They both ensure that their workers whose income is little are supplied with minimum level retirement earning. Mandatory retirement is prohibited by age discrimination laws in the America while it has major effects in Germany. The government should expand social security in order to provide more preretirement income.

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