Gender Pension Parity Report

Our recent Gender Pension Parity report found a 36% gender pension gap in Ireland. This means women would need to work for 8 years longer than men to build the same-sized pension pot.

The report analysed data from over 130,000 Irish Life defined contribution pension plan members. It examined the main causes of gender pension disparity and compared behaviours between men and women in key areas. The report also suggests solutions for achieving gender pension parity in Ireland. Everyone has a part to play, from state policy makers to providers, employers and employees.

Find out how to support the women in your workforce.

The gender pension gap is the difference in average retirement savings between men and women at “normal retirement age”, which is typically 65 [1].

As Ireland’s leading provider of employee benefits, our core purpose is to help people build better financial futures. We started the gender pension parity conversation in Ireland in 2019. In our 2024 report, we revisited the issue, reaffirmed the main causes of the gender pension gap and added a fresh perspective by examining the gender differential across some key behavioural aspects. We also recommended a series of solutions to close the gap. 

Our report found 2 key drivers of the gender pension gap:

• A 22% salary disparity [2]
• Time out of the workforce [3].

Salary disparity directly impacts the gender pension gap. Our data shows that men and women save similar percentages of salary [4]. However, because pension contributions are a percentage of salary, higher earners naturally save more, in monetary terms.

Our data also shows women are twice as likely to earn less than €30,000 per year than men [5], while men are nearly twice as likely to earn over €100,000 per year compared to women [6]. Since our 2019 Pension Parity Report, there have been some positive changes around Gender Pay Disparity Reporting in Ireland, on the back of the Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021. However, while progress is being made in this space, there is more to be done. 

Eurostat data shows women in Ireland take an average of 6 years out of the workforce [7]. This is mainly for maternity leave and care responsibilities, which are heavily influenced by gender norms and traditions. While many women may prepare for income loss during leave, or when reducing their hours to go part time, the impact that this might have on their pension savings can go unnoticed. The reality is that any unpaid leave or reduction in working hours - or any instance where earnings are negatively impacted - affects a person’s pension contributions. For many, the impact is doubled because it affects their employer contributions as well as their own. It also means less tax relief.

The good news is that there are no major differences when it comes to the ages that men and women start saving into a pension [8], or the percentage of salary they contribute [9]. However, our data found that proactivity in two key areas has a significant impact on the funds that people can expect to build up over time:

• People making regular and/or once off contributions to their pension in the last year can expect 150% larger pension funds [10]. 
• People who have registered for Pension Portal are likely to end up with 54% larger funds at retirement [11]. 

At the same time, research shows that women struggle with confidence when it comes to pensions and finances [12]. And logically, it’s harder to be proactive in any space when confidence is lacking. Which may explain why men are more proactive currently in both key areas.

So, we need to financially empower the women in our workforce to be more comfortable and proactive when it comes to their finances. 

The solution to achieving gender pension parity cannot be women working for 8 more years than men. We need solutions at policy, company and individual levels. 

Pension policies need to be gender proofed to avoid implementing rules that exacerbate the gap. 

Employers can design workplace policies to reduce the impact of unpaid leave for women returning to their roles and work closely with benefit providers to deliver well-conceived supports and initiatives to boost financial literacy and empower the women in their organisations. 

Financially empowering women so they have the knowledge and confidence to make informed choices and understand the impact that any time out of work or reduction in hours will have in the longer term is key. We need to position women to understand their journey and know the best possible actions they can take to close any gaps that might occur along the way, should they decide to do so.

Lastly, as individuals, employees should take every opportunity available to fast track their financial literacy, strengthen their knowledge and become confident in this space so they can start taking control of their financial futures. 

Together, we can take progressive steps toward achieving gender pension parity for the women of Ireland.

It’s important to point out that for the purpose of this report, we examine gender purely from a binary “male” or “female” perspective. Whilst it’s clear that the whole concept of gender is broader and more fluid than that, the data we use to glean the insights in this report differentiates only by men and women when it comes to gender at this time, though it’s clear that in the future, this debate will evolve.

Our defined contribution (DC) group or workplace pension plans serve as our primary data source, with over 130,000 defined contribution plan members included in the data set, though we also gleaned some useful insights from initial outputs of an ongoing research study which Irish Life funded with South East Technological University around young women’s retirement planning in Ireland, which included both independent focus groups and substantial qualitative analysis.