In June, a petition for the ‘extension of the retirement age to 65’ by the unions of Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, and GM Korea appeared on the Blue House public petition board. A petition to increase the retirement age from 60 to 65 is rapidly gaining approval. However, in reality, the 65-year-old retirement age extension has too many institutional and timely shortcomings to be introduced. The impact on the businesses when the first age extension (to 60 years of age) was introduced in 2013 has not yet been fully felt. Even now, many companies are trying to meet the actual retirement age of 60. If the retirement age is extended to 65, the rotation of the workforce will not occur properly. In addition, the productivity of enterprises is falling, and ultimately the problems of decrease in productivity cannot be solved. For the above reasons, it is not desirable to extend the retirement age to 65.
             First, if the retirement age is extended, the internal workforce circulation in corporations and youth employment become rigid. In fact, when the 60-year-old retirement system was first introduced in 2013, business executives took tremendous effort and time to adapt their companies to this system. According to a survey conducted by the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI), the direct cost of additional employment for those aged 60 to 64 following the extension of the retirement age to 65 years old was estimated at 14.4 trillion won and the indirect cost was estimated at an additional 1.5 trillion won. As such enormous social costs are generated, the employment of young people is inevitably affected as well. In fact, according to the Korea Development Institute (KDI), for every 10 year increase in the number as beneficiaries of the retirement age extension at a workplace of the same size, the employment of young people aged 15-29  decreases by two. If the extension of the retirement age takes place while the youth unemployment and job instability are already getting worse, the problem of youth employment will become even more serious. Moreover, Korea's population aging rate is faster than any other country. According to a report on 'Employment Problems in the Aging Age and a New Employment System' by a senior researcher at the Korea Labor Institute (KLI), Korea is moving from an 'aging society' where the proportion of the population aged 65 and over is 7% or more to a 'super-aged society' with 20% or more. It is expected to take 25 years to complete this change. This is 10 years ahead of Japan's 35-year record, which entered the super-aged society faster than any other country. In this situation where the population reaching retirement age is increasing at a frightening rate, increasing the retirement age by five years puts a great burden on companies in hiring new personnel. This also creates a paradoxical situation when the inevitable retirement numbers increase. In fact, according to Statistics Korea’s ‘2019 Statistics on the Elderly’, among those aged 55 to 64 who retired in 2016, the rate of job loss due to recommended resignation, honorary retirement, or layoff was 9.6%.
            Second, if the retirement age is extended, the productivity of the company will definitely decrease. This is because the worker's productivity-to-wage ratio decreases as the worker's age increases in general. According to a survey by the Korea Labor Institute, the wages of workers aged 55 and over were three times that of workers aged 34-55, while their productivity was only 60% of the younger group. Instead of a retirement age extension, competent long-term employees can also effectively contribute to a company’s development if existing policies are utilized more actively. In fact, the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) is currently granting incentives to companies that voluntarily hire retired workers. The MOEL announced that they are implementing a senior citizen employment subsidy system. This system pays 270,000 won per person each quarter to companies if they employ over the standard employment rate for seniors aged 60 and over. They have announced plans to gradually expand this system. This system is implemented in companies that do not have a retirement age system. It provides benefits to companies that re-employ the elderly without extending the retirement age. The government needs to realize that simply extending the retirement age is not the only solution that utilizes the working-age population. Rather, continuously providing incentives to corporate talents and improving their work capabilities can also be an alternative.
          Third, the extension of the retirement age worsens generational conflict. Currently, Korean society is experiencing generational conflicts on various issues. In particular, the main conflict is between the Baby Boomer generation, who were born in the 1950s and 1960s and the Millennial generation born from the early 1980s to 2000s. In fact, even within companies, intergenerational conflicts are becoming prominent. It has become common that each generation has different opinions although they belong to the same company. This leads to the division of labor unions regarding the extension of the retirement age. An employee who identified himself a Millennial working at motor company B (one of the three automaker companies in Korea) posted a petition to the Blue House public petition board saying, "The union only focuses on the retirement age. The union said that it represents 50,000 union members, but in reality, it only stands for the rights of the 10,000 people who will retire within the next few years. The union has abandoned the younger generation, which is the driving force of the company. Please stop the tyranny of the stubborn union." It is obvious that a huge scale of social division that will occur if the retirement age is extended. 
In conclusion, Korean society and corporate structure are not yet ready to accept the extension of the retirement age. Even with the retirement age of 60, there are numerous problems such as generational conflict, loss of productivity and a decrease in youth employment. In the 1970s and 1980s, when Korean society was growing rapidly, the policy of extending the retirement age could induce long-term healthy employment and stimulate labor incentives. However, at this moment, extending the retirement age evokes lower productivity. The status quo must be maintained until companies find an effective structure that increases productivity while the retirement age is extended, or until a foundation is laid for the elderly to work efficiently without affecting youth employment. Therefore it is not desirable to extend the retirement age to 65 at the present time.

In short, the key is to solve the problems of an aging society and utilize the aging population properly without lowering corporate productivity. As the aging population increases, the government must pay attention to diverse aspects, such as employment and pensions for stable retirement life. At the same time, corporations’’ various actions responding to changes in the demographic structure efficiently through the use of the elderly population should be acknowledged. In the end, the job market should be a place where talented people can show high productivity and compete in a positive way.