Social equity & finance

Gender Pension Gap

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Definition

The gender pension gap is the percentage difference between the average pension income of women and men in retirement. It accumulates the effects of the gender pay gap, part-time and interrupted careers, informal caring, and pension-system design; a European Parliament resolution put the EU gap at about 40% and called for an EU-level strategy to close it.

References

AGE Platform EuropeEnd the gender pension gap, calls the European Parliament (gap of about 40%; EP resolution of 14 June; causes in labour-market interruption for care)

magnitude and causes

Overview

What it means

Even where pay gaps narrow, pension gaps persist because they compound decades of labour-market inequality: lower contributions, missing contribution years for childcare or eldercare, and survivor and accrual rules built around a single-breadwinner model. The result is a higher risk of poverty in old age for women, who also live longer on average.

How it is used

The gap is tracked by EU institutions and national equality bodies; it informs pension reform, care-policy design, and debates on crediting care periods in pension systems.

Why it matters

It is the end point of gender inequality across the life course — the gap that remains when all the others have had a lifetime to accumulate.