Older people work longer in rapidly ageing Thailand

12 กุมภาพันธ์ 2559

Age 60 was traditionally the age when people stopped working & began life as the "elderly" cared for by children but this is changing quickly.

WORK

Older people work longer in rapidly aging Thailand

Abridged and summarized from Reuters article here.

Age 60 used to be the age in Thailand when people stopped working and began a life of retirement as "elderly" people taken care of by their children but this is increasingly not true anymore.

RAPIDLY AGEING POPULATION

Thailand's population is rapidly ageing, unlike neighbouring countries such as Burma, Cambodia and Laos with more youthful populations that supply Thailand with much of its migrant labour workforce nowadays.

Thailand's working-age population is projected to shrink by 11% by 2040, the fastest of any ASEAN country.

Thailand's fertility rate dropped to 1.5 in 2013 from 5.6 in 1970 due, in part, to a successful contraception programme started in the 1970s.

More recently, a rising cost of living and education have made raising children a more expensive proposition.

Young people are also waiting longer to get married and have children.

Older people work longer in rapidly ageing Thailand

Three senior citizen friends on a trip to the horse races. Many senior citizens want to do something more productive.

RETIREMENT AGE: TOO EARLY

With 60 years-old set as the legal retirement age, people are classified as "elderly" or "senior citizen" and are barred from working as "permanent employee" (forced to work as on a contract basis) at a lot younger age than western countries such as the US where 65-67 is the typical retirement age.

The Department of Older Persons was specially created by the government in 2015 to deal with the employment of people over the retirement age and related issues.

The government is considering extending the retirement age for some occupations but changing existing regulations after people have planned all their lives for them is not easy.

DRIVE TO EMPLOY PEOPLE OVER 60 YEARS-OLD

More and more older people are reported to be seeking jobs.

The government is also urging businesses to hire more older people.

One example is Cho Heng Rice Vermicelli Factory, located on the outskirts of Bangkok, that says that 62 of its 1,600 workers are over the retirement age of 60, adding that these older employees are also valued for their reliability and experience.

A typical hard-working older employee, is one 72-year old cleaner with five children and grandchildren. She even manages to help pay for the education of two of her grandchildren.

OLDER WORKERS KEEP THEIR COOL

The Bangkok Transport which runs city buses in Bangkok has 13% of its workforce over 60, as drivers, conductors and even bus terminal managers.

Older employees are said to be better able to keep their cool in nightmare Bangkok traffic.

PENSION HEADACHES

The government is trying to limit the rise in the cost of its rather modest pension scheme.

In 2015 the government paid 61.37 billion baht ($1.73 billion) in pensions and this is expected to rise 16% to 71.23 billion baht in 2020.

With small monthly pensions of 600-1,000 baht a month ($17-$28) when they retire at age 60, many Thais have no choice but to continue working.

Nearly 40 percent of the 10 million Thais who are above the mandatory retirement age of 60 are still in the workforce.

Being a bus driver or conductor means a lot of waiting in traffic jams & older workers are said to be better able to keep their cool in nightmare Bangkok traffic.