The Gender Pension Gap

Worldwide, women receive lower pensions which makes them more vulnerable to poverty in old age. Findings show "a clear systematic and structural pension disadvantage for women" in almost all countries. Even now and even in the European Union, women have on average 30% lower retirement income than men. This gender pension gap ranges from 43.1% in Luxembourg to 1.1% in Estonia. Austria has the fourth highest one (38.7%) and a negative "top" position "despite an above-average economic performance per inhabitant and an above-average employment rate for women". Based on data of the 2017 pension access cohort, the gap calculated for Austria even reaches 42.3%.

6.2% of women in the European Union have no pension entitlement, in Austria the percentage of women affected is 18.4% (Mayrhuber & Mairhuber, 2020). However, things could also be different:

In the European Union 6.2% of female population age 65 to 74 have no pension entitlement at all. In Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden people of a certain age receive a universal pension benefit, so there are no differences in pension claims between men and women.

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- Mayrhuber, C & Mairhuber, I. (2020). The gender pension gap in Austria and Europe. Östereichische Gesellschaft für Europapolitik, link.
- photograph by Charles H. Traub via