“It has absolutely nothing to do”: questioned at the end of January on the warning of the man who was at the head of Swedish Social Security during the pension reform, and who invited the French government not to “copy “this model, Olivier Véran had a sharp answer… And the government spokesperson is rather right. The system put in place in Sweden is more like the one imagined during the first five-year term than the current bill, which is content to play on the existing parameters of the pension system. That said, one element of the Swedish model could inspire the government: its performance in terms of employment of seniors. According to the latest Eurostat data, Sweden is the European Union country with the highest senior employment rate (77%, compared to 56% in France).
© / Dario Ingiusto / L’Express
A magic recipe that is the result of several ingredients. Obviously, the Swedish pension system plays. The pivotal age for a full pension is set at 65, and the basic scheme is a “notional account” pay-as-you-go scheme. Swedes have a “virtual sum”, which is divided when they retire by their life expectancy in retirement. “When they work an extra year, the pension is much higher: this is a powerful incentive to stay in the labor market”, underlines Jon Pareliussen, senior economist at the OECD in charge of Sweden. . An additional year in fact inflates the amount of pensions by approximately 3.5%. Especially since these have tended to decline in recent years…
But this is not the only explanation. This performance is also the result of a very high overall employment rate, regardless of age or gender. “It is a small economy open to the world, and politicians, businesses and workers have understood that they have a common interest in having a high employment rate in order to do well in the world competition”, describes Jon Pareliussen.
Better social dialogue
Their vision of the place of older people in the labor market is also completely different from that which exists in France, even if debates are currently taking place on the impoverishment of some retirees. “But the debate focuses more on how to enable older people to have an activity than on retirement as such,” said John Mellkvist, senior consultant for the Kreab consulting firm in Stockholm, an expert on aging and a former member of the delegation for the employment of seniors.
On the labor market, a certain number of practices or legislation also allow the country to display a high rate of employment of seniors. “The Swedes have a fairly egalitarian tradition of work, and the salary does not really increase with seniority, but rather according to qualifications”, explains Vincent Touzé. As a result, Swedish companies do not find themselves with older employees who are paid dearly and are a little less productive, a situation which today affects the employment of seniors in France.
As in the other Nordic countries, emphasis is placed on training employees throughout their lives, and in particular when they get older, to enable them to change jobs and access less arduous jobs. During social plans, the “first in, last out” rule also protects older employees. Financial incentives also exist to employ people over 65, and to improve the working environment for employees. “Social dialogue is also of better quality than in France, which promotes investment in working conditions or the quality of life at work in the company”, notes Marc Ferracci, Renaissance deputy and labor market specialist. . If it seems difficult to copy the recipes of Stockholm, which are specific to an economy and a tradition, John Mellkvist still has some advice to give to France in view of the Swedish experience: “Employment of seniors is a long-term project, and the most important thing is to find a common political basis to stay the course for as long as possible.” Extensive program.