Retirees gather in Baghdad demanding pensions be doubled to a million dinars

BAGHDAD — Retirees from across Iraq gathered in Baghdad’s Alawi district on Monday to demand a minimum monthly pension of a million dinars, about $650 — double the statutory floor of 500,000 and well above the 600,000 many receive with the government supplement.

Existing pensions no longer cover rent, medical treatment and education, protesters said. “We came from all Iraqi governorates to demand higher salaries,” said Saeed al-Dibbi. “We have rent, hospitals, schools and students, and this elderly group has no source of income other than the salary. Are we supposed to carry bricks and work as laborers?” Retirees were increasingly paying privately for services the state does not provide, he said: “Even government hospitals are not available as required, and government schools are not enough, so we have become forced to pay the costs of education and treatment. We fought and struggled in the heat and cold, and we did not even receive the simplest of our rights, such as a plot of land.”

Most of those present had long service. “All the demonstrators here have more than 30 and 40 years of service,” said Mousa Issa. “We suffer humiliation in this life, and standing here to demand our rights is itself the greatest humiliation. We fought and sacrificed for Iraq and the homeland, but there is no justice or fairness in this government.”

Dawoud Salman described the pressure on households. “The situation of the retiree has reached the point where he cries and tears fall because of the low salary, while we live in rented homes and have children in universities,” he said. “Everything in this life now comes at a cost — water, electricity and all services. Only the air has not yet come at a cost.”

Under the Unified Retirement Law of 2014 the minimum pension is 500,000 dinars a month, about $330. The government later added 100,000 dinars for civilian and military retirees whose pensions and allowances came to less than a million, bringing many to at least 600,000, roughly $390. Monday’s demand would double the statutory floor.

Retirees have protested before over disparities in the system. Demonstrators in Baghdad in January 2024 said some received about 500,000 dinars while others with comparable service received around 800,000, depending partly on when they retired and which provisions applied to them.