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Retirement
Last updated August 2o26
This chapter explains an employee’s rights when they approach retirement age and how you can assist an employee to transition into voluntary retirement.
What is retirement?
Retirement is a form of termination of employment. In the past, it was generally accepted that employees must retire at a particular age, e.g. 65. Today, Australia has no compulsory retirement age.
In 2024–2025, 156,000 people aged 45 years and over retired, with an average age of 63.8 years, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The ABS also reports that just over 800,000 people in 2024–2025 intended to retire within 5 years, and 294,000 within 2 years.
Important: Generally, retirement is a voluntary kind of resignation. However, in some cases retirement can be forced on the employee by a misguided employer or poor health.
Can you force an employee to retire?
Caution: Retirement is a voluntary resignation. Compulsory retirement is illegal.
Compulsory retirement is when an employer:
- retires an employee;
- persuades an employee to retire; or
- treats an employee in such a way that they are ultimately forced to retire.