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Women aged over 65 in Luxembourg receive 38% less pension than men.
According to the EU Commission's recent pension adequacy report, Luxembourg has one of the largest gender pension gaps in Europe, surpassed only by Malta and the Netherlands.
This gap primarily impacts current retirees, many of whom belong to generations, where women often worked part-time or left the workforce to care for children, leading to them being disadvantaged compared to men. In 2004, women in Luxembourg were, on average, more than two years older than men when they retired. However, this gap has been narrowing, and by 2022, women were only a few months older than men at retirement.
Read more:How should Luxembourg fill its depleting pension funds?
Those who work part-time also earn less, contribute less and therefore receive smaller pensions, leading to around 60% of women in the general regime receiving a pension of less than €2,500 per month. Women make up 80% of those who have to receive a supplement on top of the minimum pension.
The good news is that the gender pension gap is decreasing. Back in 2019, it stood at 46% in Luxembourg. However, the question remains of what it will take and how long it will take to finally close this gap.
According to the General Inspectorate of Social Security (IGSS), nearly one-third of salaried women still work part-time today, contributing less to their pensions as a result. In contrast, only 8% of men work part-time.
Additionally, women continue to take on the majority of childcare responsibilities more so than men. For instance, among new retirees last year, two-thirds were women, reflecting the gender imbalance in parental leave participation. Employers have suggested reconsidering parental leave in their statement to the Economic and Social Council (CES), but such changes would disproportionately impact women, given their greater reliance on these schemes.
Complementary periods, such as years spent studying or caring for children, have a significantly greater impact on women's career trajectories than on men's. According to the CES' opinion on the pension system, in 2012 both men and women among the then-retirees had claimed an average of 6.6 years of complementary years for their careers. However, for women, this accounted for a quarter of their entire career, while for men it was only 16%. Therefore, any changes to how these periods will be considered in pension calculations, as suggested by employers, would disproportionately affect women.
Claudine Speltz, President of the Luxembourg National Women's Council (CNFL), has expressed strong opposition to such a rollback, calling it a setback for gender equality. The CNFL advocates for the complete individualisation of both taxation and pension rights to promote fairness. However, Speltz noted in dismay that the CNFL has not yet been invited to participate in the government's pension consultation process, unlike other organisations that have been included in this process.