What would women’s pensions look like if there wasn’t a gender pay gap? The economic case for gender-inclusive, paid parental leave
By Pension Bee
PensionBee’s vision is a world where everyone can look forward to a happy retirement. For this to happen, we all need good health, financial freedom, and social inclusion.
Currently, an obstacle to achieving this financial freedom for all is a gender pension gap of up to almost 60%. Bold action is required to challenge this so that women can enjoy similar levels of wealth in retirement as men. This is particularly important as women tend to live longer and often bear their own care costs1.
Introduced in 2012, Auto-Enrolment has helped more than 10 million workers participate in the pension savings system. The policy has assisted in reducing the gap between the proportion of women saving compared to men, with substantially higher rates of participation amongst both genders2.
However, a severe gender pension gap persists. Two major drivers of this are the gender pay gap and an unequal number of annual paid working hours3.
Women are more likely to cut down on paid employment to take responsibility for a larger share of unpaid caregiving and housework4.
The prohibitive costs of professional childcare services pressure families to choose one parent, typically the mother, to leave or reduce paid employment to care for children5.
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