It’s partly the inevitable result of the gender pay gap, but the sums are much bigger. This urgently needs to be fixed, says economist Rajiv Prabhakar
Engagement with the labour force is, however, not the full story. Many women will take time out of work while their partners continue in full-time employment, but if marriages break down they do not usually receive a percentage of their partners’ pensions.can be split in various ways following a divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership, but pension sharing orders appear only in a small proportion of divorces.
So, what is to be done? In the long term, there are deep-seated issues around pay equality, the division of caring responsibilities between genders and better divorce terms for women to be addressed. But in the short term, for economists like me, we need more data to be able to better define and therefore support campaigns around the gender pension gap.
The gender pension gap can be defined in different ways. For example, it might look at retirement income, differences in automatic enrolment participation rates between men and women, or the size of pension pots. There are competing arguments for each of these measures. Without a definition it is hard to develop a measure for tracking progress on reducing it or to set targets to reduce it.
Women are unjustly paying for the gender pay gap twice, in the present and in the future. They are also paying for all the unpaid work they do. It’s too late for women receiving their pensions now, but we owe it to those who will retire in the future to fix this problem rather than continuing to sleepwalk into it.
Dr Rajiv Prabhakar is a senior lecturer at the Open University and author of Financial Inclusion: Critique and Alternatives
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
'Beautiful snapshot' of Australian life celebrated through 90 years of the Women's WeeklyIn its heyday, 1 in 4 Australians read the Women's Weekly, with the publication supporting women in journalism, including war correspondent Dorothy Drain.
Read more »
It's an award-winning book, so why is it facing a ban in Australia?The Classifications Board will meet on Monday to consider an appeal against its rating of Gender Queer: A Memoir as a book for mature audiences.
Read more »
Female footballers need better coaching to protect hamstrings, experts sayExclusive: Injury research suggests training not keeping up with demands of elite women’s game
Read more »
Lost in Transition: Report lays bare Greens gender rift, warns of split riskAn internal war within the Victorian Greens over allegations of transphobia has taken an unexpected turn, with the leadership facing pushback from ordinary members who believe bullying by trans activists is a bigger problem within the party than bigotry.
Read more »
Australian families changing as more mothers return to work full-timeAs stigma about mothers working full-time plummets and living costs rise, data shows the proportion of dual-earner families has increased to 71 per cent, nearly double the level of 1979.
Read more »
Two albino pythons stolen from pet store in SydneyThree alleged thieves snuck into the Sydney pet store about midday yesterday while staff were working before locating the rare and valuable reptiles. 9News
Read more »