At 50, an employee is a dinosaur for an employer: pensioners opened the eyes of the Ministry of Finance

In total, as of September 1, there were 41.2 million pensioners in Russia. Of these, 33.6 million are unemployed and 7.6 million are employed.

Muscovite Victoria is 64 years old. After graduating from the Faculty of Economics of a capital university, she worked at a factory, then taught for some period.

“Two sons were born into the family one after another,” Victoria shares with us. — When the eldest went to school, we decided at a family council that I needed to leave my job. I was raising children.

Only 15 years later I decided to go back to work. At the same time, I was only able to get a job as a cashier in a store. Three years later I got a job as a cashier at a bank. Became a senior cashier. I finally started receiving a decent salary. There were good bonuses. But, despite the excellent characteristics, upon reaching retirement age I was laid off. This is the bank’s policy. They paid me double salary and said goodbye to me.

As Victoria says, getting a job for a pensioner is problematic.

“Where they are ready to take us, they offer mere pennies.” But I found a way out for myself. The husband works as a manager for a businessman in a country house near Moscow. The husband has a spacious guest house at his disposal. I have enough time in retirement. And I began to often go to work with him.

I helped as much as I could. The owner was all for it. Moreover, for the fact that I would partially perform the functions of a gardener, I was offered 35 thousand rubles. Salary is unofficial. My husband and I are busy three days a week. Therefore, we still have time to work at our dacha in the Chekhov district of the Moscow region.

The businessman, in whose country house we work, has a fairly large plot of land – 30 acres. There is a large park there, many areas are paved with stone. There is an automatic watering system. We have modern technology at our disposal. Working three days a week in the fresh air is not burdensome for me.

Victoria says that if she worked officially, her pension would be 18,500 rubles. She would lose 5.5 thousand.

— Now I receive 24 thousand with all the capital’s allowances. So pensioners work. But often – unofficially. That’s why officials “don’t see” us. We are not included in the statistics.

Another of our interlocutors, Tatyana, is 77 years old. She lives in Kursk. I worked in the archives all my life.

“If at my age they had offered me any job, I would have gone without hesitation,” says Tatyana. — While I was working in the archive, I was relatively healthy. When I broke my arm, I continued to go to work with a cast.

Work is a vital stimulus. In a team, a person moves in the general flow, feels important and necessary. And when you retire, you find yourself “on the sidelines.” The pension is only enough to pay for housing and communal services, medicines and a limited range of products.

We contacted another pensioner who introduced himself as Sergei. The man was belligerent. Immediately noticing that he was not an “office” pensioner, “he didn’t wipe his pants in the office,” he worked at the machine. He was outraged by the very posing of the question, for what reasons do pensioners choose not to work.

– Why, in fact, should we work at all? We have already plowed our land and retired for a well-deserved rest. Or is there not enough free labor, so we need to attract pensioners? It’s funny to hear about indexation of pensions for non-working pensioners. They gave a thousand, but took away five through increased prices for utilities, food and everything else.

Evgeny from Kurgan says that his health is already failing, but he simply cannot afford not to work in retirement.

“We need to help an old mother who is sick,” shares Evgeniy. — We need to repair the house. We are now collecting money for our granddaughter’s studies. My daughter is raising two children alone. I hold on to my job, I even go out to work on Saturday if asked. I have friends who advise me to quit so that my pension will be indexed, and then get a job again. I don’t want to take risks. They may not take it back later. Already at the age of 50, a person for employers is a representative of an outdated generation, a dinosaur. What can we say about pensioners?

Nikolai, who lives in the Saratov region, says that he continues to work in retirement so that he can be at home less.

“We live in a private house, we have a lot of land, the plot goes beyond the horizon, my wife constantly nags: do this, do that,” Nikolai shares. — I’m an electrician, I feel calmer at work. Again, interesting communication, colleagues respect you. So I’ll work as long as my legs carry me.

According to the Social Fund (as of September 1), the average pension for non-working pensioners was 20.28 thousand rubles. For those pensioners who are employed – 16.47. This is due to the fact that the annual indexation of pensions since 2016 does not affect working pensioners.

Olga from the Perm region, who has worked all her life in a budget organization, is surprised by the indicated average pension.

“In our province, pensions are 12-15 thousand rubles,” says our interlocutor. “You can survive on this money, but you can’t live normally.” People would be happy to earn extra money in retirement, but there is nowhere. Rare vacancies appear where the salary offered is the same as the minimum wage. Someone is grasping for this too.