Germany

Over the last few decades, the German pension system has undergone important changes, from the introduction of care credits to account for care responsibilities to the extension of working lives. This chapter provides an overview of recent pension reforms in Germany. Following Bismarckian tradition, the German pension system is reliant on contributions made over the course of individual working lives. To account for the strong interdependency between employment and pension entitlements, this chapter embeds the overview of pension reforms in the broader context of recent developments in the labour market and policies aiming to facilitate reconciliation between work and family life and those supporting the extension of working lives.