Italy Goes In Different Direction Than U.S

The Social Security Administration has issued its International Update for September with information about Social Security programs in other countries. This caught my eye:

The Italian government reached an agreement on pension reform with Italy's four largest labor unions in late July 2007. The government expects to pass legislation to raise the full retirement age to 57. If the new legislation is passed, the

full retirement age will increase from the current age 55 to age 57 over the next 4 years. The existing law requires that the retirement age increase immediately to age 60 on January 1, 2008. The government estimates that once this proposed legislation is enacted, Italians could retire with full pensions 3 or more years earlier at a cost of €10 billion (US$13.6 billion) more than under the existing law.