IWD 2024 sees Scottish Widows shine a light on beating the Gender Pension Gap

Scottish Widows is one of the UKs leading pension providers. Their latest data shows that despite more women saving into a pension, the gender pension gap persists and won’t go away without action.

In the UK, the average young woman today is on track to retire with around £100k less than a man, the gap jumps from £100 to £100,000 over her working life.

Decisions made in a woman's 20s and 30s can have a massive impact on future financial outcomes.

This International Women’s Day, Scottish Widows new Beat the Gap tool arms women with information they need to navigate a pension system that continues to be better suited to a typically male savings journey and help women today become the first generation to achieve pensions equality.

What’s behind the Gender Pension Gap? 

The main reasons men’s pensions tend to be much bigger than women’s are things like pay imbalance, part time working and time out of work to manage childcare.

After women have children, the gap between their pension and a typical man’s starts to widen. For men, having children doesn’t normally impact their pension. This is because women tend to take on the lion’s share of childcare and employment breaks or part time working are big drivers of the gender pension gap. Earning less and potentially missing out on employer pension contributions to their pension, makes it harder for women to save enough for an equal retirement. Did you know 47% of mothers have gone part time to look after their children compared to 15% of men.

Pay also continues to be a big factor. Data from the UK's Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows progress has been made in closing the pay gap, however inequalities still exist. While the number of women saving into a workplace pension scheme has nearly doubled over the last 10 years (this is great news!), women still tend to earn less than men at all points in their working lives and typically save less into their pension over this time.  Research shows that 37% of mothers have left a job to cover childcare compared with 18% of fathers and men’s salaries are more likely to grow consistently over their working life.

Boosting a pension to help BEAT THE GAP

Scottish Widows new tool, Beat the Gap helps women see how the pension gap emerges and the opportunities they have, especially in the younger years, to help improve their outcomes.

Based on simple questions women will get tailored tips to help them beat the pension gap.

Protecting financial futures

Scottish Widows has a dedicated hub hosting helpful tools and resources to support women and their financial wellbeing.

When it comes to planning for retirement, knowledge is power, so read more here.

Learn more about Scottish Widows.