Pensions - Articles - Gender pay gap leading to massive pension shortfall


Looking at ONS data from the Commons Library, Alice Guy, Head of Pensions and Savings at interactive investor, looks at the stark impact of the gender pay gap on retirement outcomes.

 Based on comparisons between men and women earning full time salaries and in median terms, Alice Guy calculates that the female pension shortfall at retirement is £68,096 (see tables below), although charges have been excluded, because they can vary enormously.

 In reality the difference will often be larger because women are much more likely to take time out from the workplace to raise a family or due to caring responsibilities.

 Given the well document pension and investment gap, it is thought provoking that to date, 64% of people who have been referred to interactive investor via its Friends and Family* scheme have been female. And of those referring Friends and Family members, some 85% have been male. Overall, around a third of interactive investor’s customers are female, so this is an interesting emerging trend.

 Gaping Pension shortfall

 Alice Guy, Head of Pensions and Savings, interactive investor, says: “Being paid less than a man is appalling, and looking at median monthly earnings, the average gender pay gap is around £5,000 for full time employees and that has a knock-effect when it comes to retirement. A woman on the average full-time salary who saves into her pension for 40 years could have £68,096 less in her pension than a man who earns the average salary (assuming 5% employee and 3% employer pension contributions).

 “It’s important for couples to look under the bonnet of their pensions and think about how fund their retirement. Many annuities, for example don’t pay out once the first partner dies, which can be a huge issue for women who are relying on their partner’s income in retirement.

 “The new state pension also doesn’t pay out anything to a surviving spouse so men and women will each need to build up their own state pension entitlement.

 “If you can afford it, then topping up your pension contributions can make sense. The government automatically tops up pension contributions by 20%, so it will only cost £80 to pay £100 into your pension. Higher rate taxpayers get an even better deal and it only costs £60 to pay in £100.”

 

 https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8456/

 Male versus female performance

 A gender pay and pension gap there unquestionably is. When women do invest, they run their money along very similar lines to men.

 Interactive investor’s Q4 2022 private investor performance index shows similar levels of cash, similar direct equity exposure (albeit with a slightly higher exposure to the UK for women). Fund exposure is the same, although women have significantly higher exposure to investment trusts than men, at 24%, compared to men with 19% on average.

 Looking at ii’s last quarterly Private Investor Performance Index, we can also see that female customers to date have outperformed men over the last three years (since we started publishing our index), to 31 December 2022. The average female customer outperformed the average male customer over those three years by almost 1 percentage point (up 5.96%, versus 4.79% for men). Over one year to end December 222, ii’s female customers were down -8% compared to -9.2% for men.

Back to Index


Similar News to this Story

Wish list for the occupational pensions industry in 2025
As one year closes and another begins, it's an opportune moment to set our sights on the future. The UK occupational pensions industry faces nume
PSIG announces outcome of Consultation
The Pensions Scams Industry Group (PSIG), which was established in 2014 to help protect pension scheme members from scams, today announced the feedbac
Transfer values fell to a 12 month low during November
XPS Group’s Transfer Value Index reached a 12-month low, dropping to £151,000 during November 2024 before then recovering to its previous month-end po

Site Search

Exact   Any  

Latest Actuarial Jobs

Actuarial Login

Email
Password
 Jobseeker    Client
Reminder Logon

APA Sponsors

Actuarial Jobs & News Feeds

Jobs RSS News RSS

WikiActuary

Be the first to contribute to our definitive actuarial reference forum. Built by actuaries for actuaries.