Status: 07.03.2023 2:18 p.m
Women in Germany are much more at risk of poverty in old age. A current evaluation by the Federal Statistical Office shows clear differences in the retirement income of women and men.
Lower average incomes for women, longer breaks in work – for example to raise children – and more frequent part-time employment: women generally have significantly lower incomes, even in old age. There is a clear gap between the sexes, also known as the gender penson gap.
30 percent less in old age
According to the Federal Statistical Office, women over the age of 65 received an average of 17,814 euros per year and men 25,407 euros. Retirement and survivor’s pensions, pensions and pensions from individual private provision were included in the retirement income.
The gender gap in retirement income was 29.9 percent. On average, women’s retirement income was almost a third lower than that of men. According to the statisticians, women have lower pension entitlements because they sometimes work in lower-paid sectors than men. In addition, women are more likely to work part-time, take more and longer leave of absence, for example to look after children or relatives, and are also less likely to be in managerial positions.
Survivor’s pensions reduce the income gap
According to the statistics, without taking survivor’s pensions into account, the pension gap would be even larger. According to the data, around 29 percent of women over the age of 65 received old-age income from a survivor’s pension, so-called derived claims. For men, this applied to just over five percent. Without the survivor’s pensions, the gender pension gap would be 42.6 percent.
The risk of poverty increases with lower income in old age. According to the statistics, one in five women over the age of 65 is at risk of poverty. The at-risk-of-poverty rate for women aged 65 and over was 20.9 percent in 2021, significantly higher than that for men of the same age at 17.5 percent. According to the EU definition, a person is considered at risk of poverty if they have less than 60 percent of the median income of the total population at their disposal.
Overburdened by housing costs
Women are also more often overburdened by housing costs than men. In the age group of 65 and over, 15.4 percent of women live in households in which at least 40 percent of the disposable income is spent on housing. This only applies to around eleven percent of men in this age group.
The statisticians also expect significant differences in pensions in the future, because 47.4 percent of women continue to work part-time and are therefore much more likely to work part-time than men. The rate here is 10.6 percent. The proportion of women working part-time increases statistically to 63.6 percent if children live in the same household.