1543 euros: According to the Ministry of Labor this is the average pension in Germany after at least 45 years of insurance. That’s far too little, the left criticizes, and calls for an immediate inflation adjustment of ten percent.
According to the federal government, the average old-age pension after at least 45 years of insurance is 1543 euros per month. This emerges from a response from the Federal Ministry of Labor to a request from the left-wing faction leader Dietmar Bartsch, as reported by the editorial network Germany (RND). The difference between women and men is therefore several hundred euros: according to the information, men come after 45 insurance years to an average monthly pension of 1637, women to 1323 euros.
According to the report, the average pensions in the west and east of the country also differ: In western Germany, men and women received an average of 1,605 euros a month after 45 years of pension insurance. In the east, on the other hand, it is only 1403 euros.
“Far from a fair system”
“An average pension of 1,543 euros after 45 years of work is a shameful record of the pension policy of the last two decades,” criticized Bartsch, according to RND. The fact that women and East Germans received significantly less shows “that we are a long way from a fair system of adequate pensions”.
The left-wing politician demanded from the federal government “an extraordinary pension increase of ten percent this year to compensate for inflation for all pensioners”. It shouldn’t be “that ministers, state secretaries and pensioners collect 3,000 euros inflation premium, but pensioners continue to lose purchasing power in real terms”. As of July 1, pensions had increased by 4.39 percent in western Germany and by 5.86 percent in eastern Germany.
Germany needs a significantly higher pension level, Bartsch warned in the interview. “This can be financed by a major pension reform towards a ‘pension fund for everyone’ – an insurance into which all employed people pay: including civil servants, the self-employed and above all members of parliament and ministers.”
The pension level is a statistical value and reflects the relationship between the standard pension and the prevailing average income. It is currently 48 percent the traffic light coalition wants to secure it at this level until after 2025.
“Gender pension gap” of around 30 percent
The Federal Statistical Office shows that women are worse off than men in old age. According to the results of the survey on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) from 2021, women aged 65 and over received gross annual income of 17,814 euros in Germany. For men in the same age group, it was 25,407 euros gross.
As the office announced on the occasion of International Women’s Day in March, the gender gap in retirement income – also known as the “gender pension gap” – was 29.9 percent. On average, women’s retirement income was almost a third lower than that of men. The totals include retirement and survivor pensions and pensions as well as pensions from individual private provision.
On average, women have lower pension entitlements because they sometimes work in lower-paid sectors than men. In addition, they more often work part-time, take more and longer breaks for care work (care work) – for example for children or relatives in need of care – and are less often in management positions.