Gender pay gap hits women in retirement

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30 May 2018

Inequality in pay continues to follow women into retirement, with women being  retiring in 2018 on average almost £5000 per year worse off than men, a Prudential survey reveals.

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Inequality in pay continues to follow women into retirement, with women being  retiring in 2018 on average almost £5000 per year worse off than men, a Prudential survey reveals.

Inequality in pay continues to follow women into retirement, with women being  retiring in 2018 on average almost £5000 per year worse off than men, a Prudential survey reveals.

Women retiring in 2018 are expected to receive an expected average income of £16,900 while men can expect £21,800 per year. One in six women will retire this year with an income below the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s minimum income standard ( of at least £9,998) compared to just one in ten men,  the survey reveals.

At the same time, overall retirement incomes have improved over the last years and the gender gap has narrowed slightly, women retiring this year will be £2,600 a year better off than last year, while men will be £1,150 better off.

Kirsty Anderson, a retirement income expert at Prudential comments on the results: “As working patterns continue to change and become more flexible and shared parental leave is more widely encouraged by the government agenda and employers, the future looks positive for narrowing the retirement gender gap.”

At the same time, the shift of emphasis from reliance on state pension to DC schemes could aggravate the gender gap again over the longer term, a recent report by the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation predicts.

The report highlights that while state pension income factored in care credits to the overall amount of national insurance contributions, private or workplace schemes no longer factor care duties such as maternity leave in. In addition, women are more likely to work part time and due to their lower income may not reach the threshold for auto-enrolment, the study warns.

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