The state pension age in France will increase from 62 to 64 after French president, Emmanual Macron, signed his government’s pension reforms into law on Friday (14 April).

It navigated its final hurdle after the key aspects of the bill, including raising the state retirement age, were approved by the Constitutional Council hours before it was signed into law.

The reforms, especially the raising of age at which people can retire and claim the state pension, are deeply unpopular with the French public and have sparked nationwide protests over the past three months.

French trade unions have said that they will continue to oppose the reforms and urged workers to take part in another day of protests on 1 May.

The changes were also unpopular with opposition lawmakers, with Macron invoking Article 49:3 to push through his government’s reforms, bypassing the National Assembly, last month.

They were then mostly approved by the Constitutional Council, although some of the details of the bill were rejected by the council, including one aspect that would have encouraged companies with more than 1,000 employees to employ workers aged over 55.

Despite this, the majority of the bill, including the increased state pension age, was approved, and the council rejected opposition calls for a referendum.

Macron has previously described the reforms as essential to make the nation’s pension system more affordable, with the system forecast to run at a deficit in its current state.

The proposed pension age reform process is scheduled to start in September, reaching 63 years and three months by 2027 and hitting the target age of 64 in 2030.

The amount of time working needed to receive a full pension will rise from 42 years to 43 and a guaranteed minimum pension income will be introduced.

This income level will be set at no less than 85 per cent of minimum wage for new retirees.

Public sector workers in mentally or physically demanding jobs will keep the right to retire earlier than the wider workforce, but their retirement age will rise at the same rate.

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