The Government of Colombia filed this Wednesday before Congress the pension reform bill, which was agreed upon for months at a national consultation table and seeks to establish the comprehensive social protection system for old age.
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Government of Colombia presents labor reform bill
The Minister of Labor, Gloria Inés Ramírez, highlighted that the negotiation table closed its work with the approval of 86 of the 89 articles of the text filed before the Legislature.
He highlighted that thanks to these works, a text was presented to Congress that, if approved as presented, would expand pension coverage and benefit nearly three million older adults who today remain without the possibility of a pension, who are in a condition of poverty. extreme poverty and vulnerability.
He valued as positive having approved a pension reform that allows migration from a competing and parallel regime to a unified regime, which guarantees that more Colombians have the right to a pension, unlike what is currently happening, when only one in four obtains it .
He explained that this was achieved with the creation of a system of pillars: the Solidarity Pillar, the Semi-contributive Pillar, the Contributive Pillar and the Voluntary Savings Pillar.
86 of the 89 articles of the pension reform project were accepted by the Concertation Commission. We advance through social dialogue. https://t.co/hV7A8aGfQf
— GloriaRamirezRios (@GloriaRamirezRi)
March 21, 2023
Regarding the first of them, he said that it will allow the establishment of a basic solidarity income of 223,000 pesos (more than 46 dollars) for non-pensioners, a figure that is above the poverty line although it is lower than what the Government had initially offered (500,000 pesos, just over 104 dollars).
Among other postulates, the pension reform filed before Congress would maintain the retirement age at 57 years in the case of women and 62 in the case of men.
Currently affiliates to the pension system must contribute 16 percent of their contribution base income, but from now on that payment will increase according to income. Thus, those who earn less than four current legal minimum wages will continue to pay the same percentage, but those who earn more will do so with an additional contribution each month between two and three percent.
The president of the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT), Francisco Maltés, valued that this reform will make it possible to pay a social debt with adults over 65 years of age without the possibility of retiring.
The president of the Colombian Association of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (Acopi), Rosmery Quintero, considered that this reform closes social gaps and that it has very strong legal and financial support, which is “very significant for the tranquility of the sector business and investors.
In the opinion of the delegate of the Confederation of Pensioners of Colombia (CPC), Anselmo Gómez, the pension reform would have “some social scope for all people who did not have the possibility of retiring, mothers who are heads of households, ordinary Colombians, peasants” .