Properly balance the situation to be acceptable to both people and the state is a challenging task with an uncertain result, as the future can never be predicted with certainty. Recently, Marian Jurečka's pension reform was admitted. The current government thus introduced its vision of the pension system for several decades. But how was the pension in the past? A short excursion to history will reveal how today's pensioners are compared to their ancestors. Few retirement lived the first pension system, as we know it, was created in Germany in 1889 during the reign of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. It was introduced because of people who no longer have the power to work, and the insurance was generally mandatory, which was the main change compared to an earlier time when some old -age pensions existed, but were reserved for state employees or miners. He retired for Bismarck at the age of 70, while the average age of adult life was 50-60 years at the end of the 19th century. The retirement was therefore exceptional. In a gross calculation, it is as if we were retiring today at the age of over 90 years. It was a groundbreaking invention, even though the one who had already lived to retire, enjoyed it only briefly. The legal pension insurance (as the official name sounded) was with respect to the state budget of marginals. Bismarck's system (with minor variations) was gradually adopted by other countries of Europe, including Czechoslovakia, which introduced it in 1924. The main pioneer was multiple Minister Lev Winter. The retirement was set at 65 years in Czechoslovakia, while the durability was still around 60. The imaginary score is thus rising from about minus 15 to minus 5 years spent in retirement.
Photo: Wikipedia German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck Today's average? Almost a quarter of a century in retirement today's statistics have reported the average life expectancy of around 77 and women even 83 years. The age for retiring is now at roughly the First Republic value and will gradually increase up to 67 years. However, the age of life expectancy also tends to grow. The difference between the First Republic and today's system is retired years. Today we spend an average of 24 years. That it does not come out mathematically? At first glance, it may seem, but it should be not forgotten that at the time of socialism and later, until 2004, men retired at 60 and women between 53 and 57 years. There is no problem today to find women who are 90 and retired at the age of 55. Thus, a retirement is not a big extreme. However, the amount that is leaving for pensions is one third of the whole state budget of the Czech Republic. If we imagine what the budget has to do to (operation and construction of hospitals, salaries of health professionals, construction and maintenance of roads and highways, education, culture, maintenance of public spaces and buildings, operation of the army and buying military equipment, firefighters, police etc. ), we realize how huge number it is. Combined with the current low birth rate, this becomes a real problem that had to be solved. By moving the retirement age at the current trend of extending life expectancy, we will gradually get to about 21 years of retirement. This is still not bad if we keep our health. But this is largely on each of us. Year 2025 – The highest purchasing power of pensioners in the history of the living standard of pensioners has changed in years depending on various circumstances. The changes were not only related to retirement age, but also the amount of pension. During the First Republic, the differences in pension and pension insurance were more than significant. High -ranking employees paid five times more than workers and their pensions were also five times higher. Today we do not encounter such differences, pensions are set solidarity. The development of pensions in relation to the average wage in the country is also interesting. Currently, the retirement ratio is 46 %, which is less than at the end of the 80s, but if we look at the real purchasing power, today's pensioners can buy about a quarter more than pensioners at the end of the 80's (o There is no need to have fun and variety of range). Inflation pensioners in the last few years have been pensions the only thing that grew reliably in our country (except prices). Specifically, in 2021, when the energy crisis broke out, the average pension according to the CZSO was CZK 15,425, while the average gross wage in the country was CZK 37,839. Three years later, in 2024, the average pension was CZK 20,680 and the average wage of CZK 45,107. By comparison, the pension ratio to wages has on average to 41 % to 46 %. The valorisation of pensions is at least as high every year as inflation, and in times of crisis even pensions even increase beyond common valorisation. Pension is therefore protected from inflation.
Photo: Shutterstock The purchase power of pensioners is constantly increasing to have a pension for us today, but it was not always the case. Pension is a achievement of modern times and the introduction of the pension system in our country was preceded by a wide right -left political consensus. Without this, a historically significant step would not be possible. So the question arises as to whether a similar harmony of government and opposition instead of reactive language would not be fruitful even nowadays…