Final Word from Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Hundreds of thousands of foreigners have worked at low-paying Czech jobs over the years, pushing down wages and allowing employers to squeeze out of the labor market aging Czechs who might demand more for their work and be unwilling or unable to provide more in terms of productivity. It's a shortsighted policy on the part of employers, but that's the way capitalism works. The state has been a willing accomplice in this but is now paying the price in the form of a bulging pension deficit. The response of the ruling coalition is to raise the retirement age, which will ultimately compound the problem by creating even more elderly people of working age whom employers will try to replace with cheaper, younger workers from Mongolia, Vietnam or the Philippines. Pension reform in the CR is a non-starter without immigration reform too. If employers aren't given an incentive to hire, train, value and nurture elderly employees, the state will have to support them one way or another. [ Czech Republic pensioners retirees migrants migration low-pay wages ]