The pension gap in Europe is bigger than the wage gap. How does Poland fare?

The difference in the amount of pensions received by women and men in Europe exceeds even 35 percent in some countries. and is greater than the disproportions in the remuneration of these two groups – reported Euronews, citing Eurostat data.

While in 2023, women in the EU earned on average 12%. less than men, in the case of pensions the difference was 22%, and in some countries it exceeded 35%.

In 2024, the pension gap between women and men ranged from approximately 6%. in Estonia to 37 percent in Great Britain. The gap between the benefits of both genders exceeds 30%. also the Netherlands, Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland and Ireland. According to data cited by Euronews, in Poland the difference was 15%.

Motherhood influences women's smaller pensions. “The gap starts to appear when women start a family,” said Professor Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi from the University of Mannheim.. Women work less to care for children, which usually results in lower pensions. – Maternity and reduced working hours reduce both current income and the amount of future benefits. They also lead to lower lifetime earnings and a shorter period of economic activity. As a result, women have less income at their disposal that they could spend on investing in private pensions, she added.

In conservative welfare states, high percentages of women work part-time, taking long career breaks. As a result, disparities between pensions are growing. However, in the Nordic countries and some countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the history of full-time employment of women is similar to that of men, the portal noted, adding that institutional childcare is more widely available in these countries, and pension systems include more redistributive elements. Although these factors did not close the gaps, they significantly reduced them.

The average gender gap in pensions in European countries has decreased from 28%. in 2007 to 22 percent in 2024. The biggest declines were recorded in Slovenia, Germany and Greece, where the gap narrowed by more than 15 percentage points in 17 years. A drop of over 10 percentage points. also reported in Norway, Portugal, Turkey and Luxembourg. The pension gap increased by 2 percentage points only in Austria, Estonia and Belgium.

– The differences result from long-term inequalities that accumulate throughout women's working lives, reflecting the interplay of labor markets, family policies and the pension system – Professor Antonio Abatemarco from the University of Salerno told Euronews Business. – The gap is therefore not a single phenomenon, but the result of three interrelated structural factors – he added. (PAP)

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