A Comparative Study on Gender Pension Gap

Abstract

Based on the question, “Why are women worse off than men in the retirement income security?”, this study explores the causes and pathways of the gender pension gap in 13 Western countries in relation to the labour market and other surrounding institutions. The results show that the gender pension gap cannot be prevented by pension systems alone, and that their performance varies depending on how they are combined with labour market structures. Differences in women’s labour market participation and status stability across the countries are reflected in different degrees of alignment between labour markets and pension systems. The unchecked growth of poorly managed women’s part-time work is not only limited to occupational pensions, but has also contributed to high levels of gender pension gaps in the countries where public pensions are dominated strongly by earnings-related characteristics. This means that the 1.5-person breadwinner model, which includes women in the form of part-time work, is likely to widen the gap, at least in terms of old-age income status. The findings of this study show that the effects of increasing women’s labour market participation and expanding part-time work on the gender pension gap are not always consistent, but have particular implications for Korea, which has seen a reckless quantitative expansion of women’s part-time work. The combination of women’s labour market participation, a stable labour market, and a highly distributive public pension system may be the most effective path to preventing the gender pension gap in our society as it moves on to a more robust multi-pillar systems.