Young people in France — including some who haven’t even entered the job market yet — are protesting Thursday against the government’s push to raise the retirement age.

Students plan to block access to some universities and high schools, and a youth-led protest is planned in Paris on Thursday, as part of nationwide strikes and demonstrations against the pension bill under debate in parliament.

For a generation already worried about inflation, uncertain job prospects and climate change, the retirement bill is stirring up broader questions about the value of work.

“I don’t want to work all my life and be exhausted at the end,” said Djana Farhaig, a 15-year-old who blocked her Paris high school with other students during a protest action last month. “It is important for us to show that the youth is engaged for its future.”

People in their teens and early 20s have taken part in protests against the retirement reform since the movement kicked off in January, but student groups and unions are seeking to call attention to young people’s concerns Thursday.

President Emmanuel Macron wants to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 and make other changes he says are needed to keep the public pension system financially stable as the population ages. Opponents argue that wealthy taxpayers or companies should pitch in more to finance the system instead.

Quentin Queller, a 23-year-old student who attended an earlier round of protests, said, “64 is so far away, it is depressing.”

He questioned the idea that hard work equals happiness, arguing that “we should work less and have more free time.” He and others echoed concerns by older protesters that instead of working to live, France is moving toward a system where people would have to live for work.

At one protest, a teenage boy held a placard saying: “I don’t want my parents to die at work.”

Thomas Coutrot, an economist specializing in health and conditions of work, described a widespread sentiment that “work has become unbearable.”

“Young people perceive that the conditions of work are deteriorating and that workers don’t understand anymore why they work,” he said.

The young protesters include many supporters of the far-left France Unbowed party and other left-wing groups, but also others. They see it as a fundamental right to be able to live on a state pension, and perceive the bill as a rollback of hard-won social achievements.