The present paper asks whether and how postponing retirement will find political support in an aging society. The paper considers a model in which the legal retirement age is the outcome of majority voting. The paper first establishes conditions that allow for a consistent application of the median voter theorem. It then demonstrates that an increase in life expectancy in fact leads to a higher legal retirement age in the political equilibrium.

In contrast, an increase in the level of intergenerational redistribution leads to a lowerlegal retirement age.