Carlos Slim, Mexico’s richest man sparked debate with a proposal that challenges traditional employment and retirement models. His argument starts from the need to adapt both systems to longer life expectancy and demographic shifts through a more flexible work arrangement, albeit with a longer working life.
Among his main proposals, Slim calls for changing the way work hours are distributed: setting schedules of up to 12 hours a day for just three days a week. In exchange, he says the retirement age should be raised to 75 instead of keeping current limits.
Although this is not a new idea in his remarks, the proposal is once again gaining attention in an international context in which pension systems are facing difficulties in ensuring their financial sustainability.
Retirement system in Mexico
In Mexico, the retirement age is currently around 65, while life expectancy is above 75, a gap that, according to the businessman, makes it necessary to review the conditions under which people stop working.
From his perspective, longer lifespans have changed the needs of pension systems. More and more people are retiring and spending more years in the system, which increases costs for both the public sector and private funds. That is why Slim believes the models designed when people lived shorter lives need an update.
“People should work three days, 12 hours a day, three days to make room for three other people to work the other three days and retire at 75, not 65 or 60,” he said in October 2023 during the 28th Plenary Meeting of the Montevideo Circle Foundation, held in Spain.
The businessman argues that extending working life could help ease the financial pressure on pension systems and, at the same time, support higher income generation.
That position is also tied to the challenges facing his own business group. At Telmex, one of his most important companies, the pension system is one of its main financial obligations, because the company has pension commitments to more than 40,000 retirees, many of them covered under older plans that allowed early retirement.
Flaws Carlos Slim sees in the pension system
Carlos Slim believes current retirement systems are becoming increasingly difficult to sustain, especially in economies where gross domestic product (GDP) growth is limited and poverty remains high. In that context, he warns of the need to find alternatives that allow available resources to be balanced against social security obligations.
However, the proposal also draws criticism from experts and different sectors of society. One of the main objections is that delaying retirement could deepen inequalities, especially for people who do physically demanding work, work in precarious conditions, or do not have the same ability to stay active into older age.
There are also questions about the consequences of implementing 12-hour shifts, even when they are concentrated into fewer days of the week. Concerns include the possible effects on health, rest, productivity, and the balance between work and personal life.