Authors: Dr. Ralf K. Himmelreicher, Andrej Stuchlik / Locations: Berlin, Speyer
Beyond the concepts of standard pensioners (“Eckrentner”, i. e. a pensioner who has earned the average income for 45 years, paid appropriate contributions and retires when reaching the regular pension eligibility age) and average amounts of pension payment, the authors describe the development of pensions in Germany by investigating the development of the sum of personal earning points as to pensions awarded between 1993 and 2007 as well as the distribution of the personal earning points among different groups of persons. They illustrate that, except for women in the old Laender, the spread of old age pensions increased. As to men and to women in the new Laender, the earning points medians decreased by approximately 6 percent. Men in the new Laender have experienced the most decisive decrease (18 percent on average). The main reason for the reduction in the sum of personal earning points are actuarial deductions due to early retirement, a pattern that appears more often in the new Laender.
