Social equity & finance
Gender Pension Gap
The difference in pension income between women and men in retirement, reflecting lifetime gaps in pay, employment, and caring responsibilities — around 40% in the EU.
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
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.
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