Gender pension gap – economic
perspective
Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak
Institute of Statistics and Demography SGH
Part of this research was supported by European Commission 7th Framework Programme project
"Employment 2025: How will multiple transitions affect the European labour market' (NEUJOBS)
Outline
• Life course changes and challenges in the light
of population ageing
• Gender pension gap: current and future
perspective
▫ Changing labour market patterns
▫ Changing pension system design
• How to measure gender pension rights gap
• Policy challenges
Rationale
• In most of the countries there is a current
pension gap, measured by differences in
pension levels of men and women
• The gender gap is a result of:
▫ Gender differences in labour market
participation (wages, employment rates)
▫ Pension system design (retirement age, pension
formula)
Length of pension coverage depends both of on
the labour market entry and exit agesSpain Sweden
Age profile of employment rates
Hypothetical years in employment
0,00
0,10
0,20
0,30
0,40
0,50
0,60
0,70
0,80
0,90
15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64
pe
r ce
nt
age group
1992 - women 2001 - women 2011 - women
0,00
0,10
0,20
0,30
0,40
0,50
0,60
0,70
0,80
0,90
15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64
pe
r ce
nt
age group
1996 - women 2001 - women 2011 - women
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
19
91
19
92
19
93
19
94
19
95
19
96
19
97
19
98
19
99
20
00
20
01
20
02
20
03
20
04
20
05
20
06
20
07
20
08
20
09
20
10
20
11
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
19
95
19
96
19
97
19
98
19
99
20
00
20
01
20
02
20
03
20
04
20
05
20
06
20
07
20
08
20
09
20
10
20
11
Current vs. future replacement
rates – projected change
Source: The 2015 Pension Adequacy Report: current and future income adequacy in old age in the EU
Career breaks for child-care and
pension rights
Type of trend Countries
1. Increases from the full-career
case and decreases afterwards
(2): Germany, Italy
2. Stable during the child-care
breaks (no change)
(1) Ireland
3. Stable for first few care years
and declining thereafter
(6) Belgium, Czech Republic,
Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Malta
4. Decreases modestly from the
full career case
(6) Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece,
Netherlands, United Kingdom
5. Stronger declines in
replacement rates
(11) France, Hungary, Poland, Slovak
Republic, Sweden, Bulgaria, Estonia,
Latvia Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia
Source: (D’Addio 2013)
Future gender pension gap depends both on
labour market and pension system factors
Pension rightsgap
Labour market
Employmentyears gap
Wage gap
Pension system
Career breakgap
Low wage redistribution
Pension indexation
Retierement age
differential
Current vs future
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Est
on
ia
Slo
va
kia
La
tvia
Cze
ch R
ep.
Hu
ng
ary
Lit
hu
an
ia
Po
lan
d
Slo
ven
ia
Ro
ma
nia
Bu
lga
ria
Den
ma
rk
Ma
lta
Fin
lan
d
Bel
giu
m
Ita
ly
Po
rtu
ga
l
Sw
ed
en
Au
stri
a
Sp
ain
Irel
an
d
Gre
ece
Cy
pru
s
Fra
nce
Net
he
rla
nd
s
UK
Ge
rma
ny
Lu
xe
mb
ou
rg
Current Gender Pension Gap Future Gender Pension Right Gap
Distribution of EU 27 countries by
the domain specific indices
Labour market equality
High Medium Low
Pen
sion
sys
tem
co
mp
ensa
tio
n High
(4) SI DK UK NE
(3) DE LT BE
(2) EE CZ
Medium (3)
CY LU FI SE (3)
IE AT LU (2)
MT ES
Low (1) PT
(4) PL FR LV BG
(5) IT RO SK HU EL
Conclusions
• The results of analysis show that countries that
have little gender differences in labour markets
also tend to have pension system policies that
are gender-friendly
• Countries with high gender differences, pension
systems often do not compensate them at
retirement
• There is a need for more life course
perspective in both labour market and
retirement policies, taking into account the
complimentary role of these policies
Conclusions
• The position of women in labour market and
family context is changing
• Policy responses to population ageing include
both changes in labour market and pension
systems that affect gender differently
▫ increases in the labour market participation of
prime-aged women,
▫ prolonging working lives
▫ increasing labour market exit ages of women
▫ raising retirement age
▫ reducing the progressivity in pension formulae,
Conclusions
• Full understanding of transition from work to
retirement requires the assessment of both sides of the
coin
• Women lose twice in most of the pension schemes –
because they earn less and because they have shorter
working lives
• Many researchers refer to these gaps, but rarely they
are seen as correlated phenomena – women with
shorter working lives have usually lower earnings at the
same time
• Gender is important in combined labour market and
pension system perspectives
Further reading:
FEMALE TRANSITION TO RETIREMENT
Neujobs project working paperhttp://www.neujobs.eu/sites/default/files/D16.2B.pdf
WOMEN’S WORK AND PENSIONS. DRAWING LESSONS FROM
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
In. B.Marin(ed.) The Future of Welfare State in a Global
Europehttp://www.euro.centre.org/data/1441432754_18933.pdf
Contact: [email protected]