Mandatory Retirement: When INSS Retires You Automatically

This page is a translation of the original Portuguese text, provided for convenience. It deals with Brazilian law. If there is any discrepancy, the Portuguese version prevails. Read the original in Portuguese

Mandatory retirement is retirement that happens automatically when an insured person reaches a certain age. It is compulsory for public servants at 75 and does not exist for private-sector workers covered by INSS (Brazil’s National Social Security Institute).

What Mandatory Retirement Is and Who It Applies To

Mandatory retirement is retirement that is imposed regardless of the insured person’s wishes, simply because they reach a certain age or meet certain conditions. In Brazil, it exists mainly in the public service and, as a rule, does not apply to private-sector workers covered by INSS.

For federal, state, and municipal public servants covered by the Regime Próprio de Previdência Social (RPPS), the public servants’ own social security system, Constitutional Amendment 88/2015 set mandatory retirement at age 75, with benefits proportional to contribution time. Before Amendment 88, the limit was 70 for most public servants.

Public servants in the judicial, legislative, and executive branches, as well as members of courts, are covered by the age-75 rule. For military personnel, specific legislation may set different limits, depending on the position and rank held.

Private Sector: There Is No Mandatory Retirement Under INSS

Private-sector workers enrolled in INSS have no mandatory retirement. No rule requires an employee of a private company to retire upon reaching a given age. Workers can keep working indefinitely, even after meeting the requirements for any type of retirement.

Although the mistake is common, age 70 does not impose any social security obligation on an employee governed by the CLT (Brazil’s Consolidated Labor Laws). An employer also cannot dismiss an employee based solely on age or on the fact that the employee has met the retirement requirements. Doing so would amount to age discrimination, which is prohibited by the Constitution and by labor law.

In the private sector, there is no mandatory retirement under INSS: the worker decides when to retire and can keep working indefinitely after meeting the requirements.

Retirement for private-sector workers is always voluntary. You decide when, and whether, to apply for the benefit. Since the 2019 Pension Reform, it is possible to keep working and contributing to INSS after your retirement is granted, which can be advantageous in some situations involving a future review of the benefit.

Mandatory Retirement and the Public Service

For public servants, mandatory retirement at 75 has important practical consequences. The public servant receives benefits proportional to contribution time, not necessarily the full amount of the last salary. If the public servant has not met the time required for full voluntary retirement, the benefit will be proportional.

The time counted for mandatory retirement purposes includes actual time in the public post. Unpaid absences, leaves without pay, and periods that do not count toward retirement can affect the amount of the proportional benefits owed when mandatory retirement takes effect.

Public servants approaching age 75 should plan the transition well in advance. They should check whether they already meet the requirements for full voluntary retirement, which would allow them to choose voluntary retirement before the mandatory age, potentially with better benefits depending on the RPPS rules.

Working After Mandatory Retirement

A public servant who has been retired on a mandatory basis can no longer hold the public post from which they retired. That is the very purpose of mandatory retirement. However, they may take on other work, including other public positions where there is no specific prohibition, subject to the constitutional limits on holding multiple positions.

In the private sector, as noted above, a worker retired through INSS can keep working as usual. A retired employee who keeps working continues to contribute to INSS, and contributions made after retirement do not automatically generate additional benefits. They may, however, be used in a later review or in the so-called “desaposentação” (giving up an existing retirement in order to obtain a better one), a topic that raises its own legal debate.

To understand how the rules for retirement by age and by contribution time apply in the private sector, check out the firm’s article on the progressive minimum retirement age in 2026.

Mandatory Retirement and Transition Rules in the Public Service

Mandatory retirement at 75 coexists with different benefit regimes in the public service, depending on when the public servant entered service. Those who entered before Constitutional Amendment 41/2003 may be entitled to full final-salary benefits (integralidade) and parity (paridade) when they meet the requirements of the earlier rule. Their benefits are calculated on the last salary and adjusted by the same percentage as those of active public servants. Those who entered after 2003 follow rules that tie benefits to the average of their contributions, with annual adjustments set by the law that applies to their level of government.

The 2019 Pension Reform redrew this landscape by introducing, at the federal level, new transition rules with differentiated minimum ages and contribution times. For public servants close to age 75, an appropriate retirement strategy involves checking whether it is still possible to meet the requirements for voluntary retirement with full benefits before mandatory retirement kicks in, an option that can produce a more favorable amount. The analysis depends on total time in public service, the career held, and the internal rules of each government’s own retirement regime. Professional guidance is advisable to avoid losing rights through a unilateral act of the administration.

Another important point is reciprocal counting of time between regimes. Public servants who have contributed to both the Regime Próprio and the General Regime can credit their INSS time toward the requirements for public servant retirement, as provided in Law No. 9.796/1999. Conversely, time served in a public post can be credited to INSS when the public servant works in the private sector after leaving public office. This portability between regimes broadens the available options and allows more flexible planning as the age limit approaches, especially for professionals who have moved between the public and private sectors over their careers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a private-company employee be fired for reaching retirement age?

No. A dismissal based solely on the fact that the employee has met the retirement requirements or reached a certain age amounts to age discrimination, which is prohibited by the Federal Constitution and by labor law. An employer can still dismiss employees, with or without cause, for the legal reasons provided by law, but it cannot use age as the sole ground for dismissal.

Can a public servant who has been retired on a mandatory basis challenge the decision?

Mandatory retirement by age is not a punishment; it is a constitutional requirement. The public servant cannot remain in the post after age 75, because the rule is self-executing. However, the public servant can challenge the amount of the proportional benefits calculated if there is an error in the time count or in the calculation base used by the public administration.

Is INSS disability retirement considered mandatory?

Not exactly. Retirement for permanent disability is granted when a medical finding establishes total and permanent incapacity for work. Although the insured person does not “choose” to become disabled, the application is filed voluntarily. In addition, INSS may review the disability over time, which sets this benefit apart from mandatory retirement by age.

INSS Contributions for Self-Employed Workers: Rates and Codes.

As informações deste artigo são de caráter informativo e não substituem consulta jurídica individualizada. Cada caso possui particularidades que exigem análise específica.