Unequal at work, men and women are even more so in retirement
The gender pensions gap is even wider than the pay gap
“THE retirement-savings crisis is a women’s crisis,” says Sallie Krawcheck, co-founder of Ellevest, a financial-advice firm for women in America. When it comes to retirement income, women are far worse-off than men. The gender pension-gap may be less well-known than the gender pay-gap, but it is in fact far larger.
Among those retired in the EU, women on average receive 39% less in pension income—from state and workplace pensions—than men do (see chart). This puts women at greater risk of old-age poverty. The European Institute for Gender Equality, a think-tank, warned in a study in 2015 that it also makes them more likely to stay with abusive partners. Reforms to European pensions, tying benefits even closer to individual contributions and thus income, mean the gap may widen further.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Silver and gold”
Finance & economics October 7th 2017
- American public pensions suffer from a gaping hole
- Mergers and acquisitions often disappoint
- Unequal at work, men and women are even more so in retirement
- How protectionism sank America’s entire merchant fleet
- Taxing fat and subsidising healthy eating widens inequality
- A new study details the wealth hidden in tax havens
- A Chinese carmaker agrees to buy a Danish investment bank
- Manias, panics and Initial Coin Offerings
More from Finance and economics
Baby-boomers are loaded. Why are they so stingy?
The mystery matters for global economic growth
Shrinking populations mean less growth and a more fractious world
Politicians must act now to avert the worst
Boaz v BlackRock: Whoever wins, closed-end funds lose
Farewell to a financial mystery