Portugal Raises Retirement Age to 66 Years and 11 Months by 2027

For anyone mapping out the final stretch of their career in Portugal, the finish line just moved again. The normal retirement age will reach 66 years and 11 months in 2027, extending the working lives of most citizens by another two months and keeping Portugal among the OECD countries with the longest careers.

Retirement Age Edges Up Again

The adjustment, confirmed by the National Statistics Institute (INE), follows the rebound in life expectancy after the disruption caused by COVID-19. Since a 2014 overhaul, the legal exit age rises or falls automatically with longevity at 65. Because Portuguese seniors are now expected to live 20.19 years beyond that milestone—roughly two months longer than last year—the legally defined idade da reforma must drift upward. In practical terms, anyone turning 66 in 2027 will need to spend almost an entire additional year in the labour market compared with cohorts who left at 65 before the rule existed.

Why the Number Keeps Climbing

Unlike in many countries where Parliament debates every change, Portugal relies on a mathematical formula embedded in Decreto-Lei 187/2007. The most recent update, published in Portaria 414/2023 and later rectified in early 2024, locked the 2025 threshold at 66 years and 7 months. Projections already point to 66 years and 9 months in 2026 and the newly announced 66 years and 11 months the following year. Policy makers insist the link between age and longevity is essential for the financial sustainability of Segurança Social, whose accounts face pressure from a shrinking workforce and one of Europe’s fastest-aging populations.

Early Exit Still Possible—But Costly

The law retains carve-outs for very long contributory careers. Employees who began paying into the system early and stack up over 40 years of contributions can tap a personalised retirement age that may undercut the statutory limit without triggering the notorious sustainability factor. Everyone else faces two simultaneous penalties: a permanent 0.5 % cut per month of early departure and a separate sustainability claw-back that climbs to 17.63 % in 2026. The generous replacement rate—pensions often equal around 90 % of final salary for full careers—makes those deductions especially painful.

Voices From the Negotiating Table

Trade unions call the fresh increase a "second tax" on workers already coping with stagnant wages and precarious contracts. The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) has tabled bills to return the age to 65 years and abolish the sustainability factor altogether, framing the automatic mechanism as indifferent to the physical toll of blue-collar jobs. Economists counter that without gradual postponement, Segurança Social would face mounting deficits from 2027 onward; some studies quoted by the OECD even forecast a need to reach 68 years for new entrants by mid-century. Other parliamentary parties mostly accept the formula, seeing it as a politically neutral way to share the cost of longer lives.

What It Means for Today’s Workforce

For a Lisbon office manager born in 1961, the change amounts to working until the brink of 67 just to receive a full pension. A delivery rider who started paying contributions at 19 may still leave a few months earlier, yet even that advantage narrows each year. Younger graduates—whose careers now start later because of extended education—face a double bind: they pay in for fewer years while having to wait longer to collect. Employers, meanwhile, must rethink career progression, health-and-safety policies and up-skilling budgets as staff remain on payroll deeper into their sixties.

The Road Ahead

Demographers project Portugal’s old-age dependency ratio could pass 67 % by 2070, leaving roughly two retirees for every three workers. Barring a major reversal in birth rates or immigration flows, the pension formula is set to add close to one month per year after 2030 until it stabilises near 68 years. Policymakers float complementary ideas—more flexible part-time retirement, incentives for private savings, and targeted immigration—yet none appear ready to dislodge the central role of longevity in determining when most Portuguese can finally clock out for good.