Billionaire Carlos Slim: Why 60 Is the New 30 - 0 views
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"When you have an industrial economy like in the past where people ... do a lot of physical work and people live less years, it's OK to retire at 65," Slim told CNBC. "When you have a society of knowledge and experience and information, at this age is where you are at your best. It's [foolish] to retire at this age. And you don't have the physical work, and you have the intellectual work and you are in your best in your 60s."
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The comment came up in a discussion about what to do to fix the European economy. Many economists and politicians have said retirement ages around the world need to rise because people are living longer and the benefits promised to retirees are unsustainable. However, Slim said, even beyond that, workers are better in their 60s than when they're younger.
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"Today they are working 35 hours. Now when you talk about 9 to 5, it's five days, eight hours. But with a coffee break and lunch etc., they work seven hours. They are working at most 35 hours. Maybe it's better to work only three days for 11 hours and have four days and this way others will work," he said.
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Sims may be onto something here with his proposal for a 3-day workweek of 11 hours per day. In the Great Depression, trade unions adopted a 5-day 40-hour workweek at no added cost to employers, cuting the workweek from 6-1/2 days (52 hrs.). It was so successful in creating jobs, albeit at lower pay, that Congress enacted legislation setting the 5-day, 40-hour workweek as a national standard, requiring payment of overtime pay at 1.5 times the normal hourly rate as the disincentive for employers working employees longer than 40 hours per week. But 11-hour workdays are a bit long in terms of the productivity and exhaustion hit. Perhaps better to aim for 8.5-hour workdays, 4 days a week. But at 3 days a week, Mom and Dad could take turns working and still have one day off a week together.