The average income of Israeli households plummets by more than one-third upon retirement, a new study has revealed, leaving pensioners with lower incomes than retirees across almost all developed European countries.

According to a new study carried out by Dr. Aviad Tor-Sinai and Prof. Avia Spivak at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s Pensions, Insurance and Financial Literacy Center, income after retirement among Israeli pensioners stands at 65.9% of their pre-retirement income The dramatic decline by age 67, just two years after retirement, includes income from all sources: labor, pension plans, social security, and capital income.

When compared to developed European countries conducting similar surveys, based on data provided by SHARE, Israeli retirees suffer a greater decline in income than their European neighbors.

Austrian pensioners, for example, enjoy 91.2% of their pre-retirement income; French pensioners retain 83.1% of their previous income; and Germans continue to earn 76.8% of their income. Only Spanish retirees, the researchers said, earn an inferior proportion of 63.3% of their pre-retirement salary.

“In general, the whole Israeli system is less generous than in European countries,” Spivak, who has served on a pension fund board for more than a decade, told The Jerusalem Post.

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