Australia's 'retirement age' just became 67. So why are the French so upset about working until 64?
Since Saturday, Australians have been required to wait until the age of 67 until they can get the age pension.
The original so-called "retirement age" of 65 for men dated back to 1909.
Women had their pension age lifted from 60 to 65 between 1995 and 2013. And all Australians have had it lifted in stages from July 2017, in a process that ended on July 1 2023.
It has happened with little protest—a stark contrast to the demonstrations and riots that rocked France earlier this year, when President Macron proposed and passed laws to lift the French pension age from 62 to 64.
What's so special about French pensions?
French strikes and demonstrations over the retirement age aren't new.
There were nationwide protests when France increased its retirement age from 60 to 62 in 2010, before that in 2003, and in 1995, when France tried to increase the pension age for public sector workers.