Early retirement in Austria
Two routes in the pension act lead to an old-age pension before the ordinary age. Both carry a permanent reduction, and since 1 January 2026 both tighten cohort by cohort.
Two routes, two prices
Before the ordinary pension age of 65 years, exactly two routes in the pension act lead to an old-age pension. They share neither their age, nor their insurance requirement, nor their reduction — § 5 Abs. 2 names three different per-month rates in a single sentence.
| Route | Earliest age | Insurance months | Reduction per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Korridorpension | 63 years | 504 insurance months | 0,425 % |
| Schwerarbeitspension | 60 years | 540 insurance months | 0,15 % |
The third rate in that sentence, 0,35 % a month, applies “otherwise” — to early pensions created outside the APG, among them the long-insured pension under § 617 Abs. 13 ASVG. We did not retrieve those conditions and do not assert them here.
The reduction is permanent — and uncapped
The reduction does not shrink a transitional period; it reduces the amount of the benefit itself, and reaching the ordinary pension age does not restore it. Nor does § 5 Abs. 2 state any ceiling on the total reduction for an old-age pension. The cap you will often see quoted is in § 6 Abs. 1 and belongs to the invalidity pension — a different benefit; it does not apply here, so we do not reproduce it. What bounds the reduction is simply how early each route opens at all.
Both routes further require that at the Stichtag you hold no compulsory pension insurance arising from employment and draw no earnings above the marginal-earnings threshold.
The corridor pension tightens cohort by cohort
§ 38 APG, in force since 1 January 2026 (Budgetbegleitgesetz 2025), replaces both the age and the insurance-month count for reference dates after 31 December 2025 — in two separate tables whose boundaries do not line up.
| Born | Earliest age | Insurance months |
|---|---|---|
| before 1 January 1964(the “born before 1 January 1964” row of § 38 Abs. 2) | 62 years | 480 insurance months |
| 1 January 1964 – 31 March 1964 | 62 years and 2 months | 482 insurance months |
| 1 April 1964 – 30 June 1964 | 62 years and 4 months | 484 insurance months |
| 1 July 1964 – 30 September 1964 | 62 years and 6 months | 486 insurance months |
| 1 October 1964 – 31 December 1964 | 62 years and 8 months | 488 insurance months |
| 1 January 1965 – 31 March 1965 | 62 years and 10 months | 490 insurance months |
| 1 April 1965 – 30 June 1965 | 63 years† | 492 insurance months |
| 1 July 1965 – 30 September 1965 | 63 years† | 494 insurance months |
| 1 October 1965 – 31 December 1965 | 63 years† | 496 insurance months |
| 1 January 1966 – 31 March 1966 | 63 years† | 498 insurance months |
| 1 April 1966 – 30 June 1966 | 63 years† | 500 insurance months |
| 1 July 1966 – 30 September 1966 | 63 years† | 502 insurance months |
| from 1 October 1966 | 63 years | 504 insurance months |
Two tables whose boundaries do not line up: the age table in § 38 Abs. 2 Z 1 ends with the cohort born to 31 March 1965, while the month table in Z 2 runs eighteen months further. Cohorts born in between therefore already take the flat age from § 4 Abs. 2 while their month count is still stepping — marked † in the age column.
Which produces the point most summaries get wrong. “62 and 480” is not a stale figure. It is the first row of § 38 Abs. 2 itself, and it is correct for everyone born before 1 January 1964 — 480 insurance months, that is 40 years. Only those born from 1 October 1966 need the full 504 insurance months (42 years) at 63 years.
Between the two sits a group you only see by laying both tables side by side: people born 1 April 1965 – 30 June 1965 already face the flat age of 63 years, while their required month count is still climbing.
The heavy-work pension
It opens at 60 years and requires 540 insurance months (45 years), of which at least 120 heavy-work months must fall within the last 240 calendar months before the Stichtag. No transitional provision in § 16 or § 38 raises that age.
What counts as heavy work in a calendar month is not settled by § 4 Abs. 4 APG itself; it is delegated to an ordinance. We did not retrieve that ordinance, so the definition is not reproduced here, and whether a particular occupation falls under it is not something this page can tell you.
How the reduction feeds into the amount is on the pension account page.