The president of the employers' association Gesamtmetall, Stefan Wolf, has advocated a gradual increase in the retirement age to 70 years.
“If you look at the demographic development and the burden on the social and pension funds, then the reserves have been used up.
We will have to work longer and harder," Wolf told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
"We will gradually have to go up to the retirement age of 70 - also because people are getting older," said the head of Gesamtmetall.
Otherwise the system will no longer be financially viable in the medium term.
According to the current legal situation, the age limit for the pension will be gradually raised from 65 to 67 years without deductions until 2029.
Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil (SPD) rejects a further increase.
As early as May, after a push by economists to retire at 70, he said: "We have agreed in the coalition that we will not increase the statutory retirement age.
And nothing will change that.”
In order to provide relief because of the increasing shortage of workers, Industry President Siegfried Russwurm recently campaigned for a different measure.
"I personally have a lot of sympathy for an optional increase in weekly working hours - of course with full wage compensation," Russwurm said at the beginning of July.
According to Russwurm, a 42-hour week would certainly be easier to implement than a general introduction of pensions at 70.
Michael Hüther, director of the employer-related Institute of German Economics (IW), had previously spoken out in favor of a 42-hour week as standard working time in the debate about falling income from pension insurance.
The former SPD chairman and then Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel also spoke out in favor of a 42-hour week.