Women in Europe receive significantly lower pensions than men, with the average gap across 27 European countries standing at 22%, according to data from the OECD and Eurostat reported by Euronews Business. This means that, on average across Europe, women receive just EUR78 in pension income, whereas men receive EUR100.

The gender pay gap is a related phenomenon, with women in the EU earning 12% less than men in 2023. However, the pension gap is wider. In 2024, the gender pension gap ranged from around 6% in Estonia to 37% in the UK. The gap exceeds 30% in several countries, including the Netherlands, Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland, and Ireland. The lowest gaps, at 10% or below, are found in Estonia, Iceland, Slovakia, Czechia, Slovenia, and Denmark.

“The gender pension gap is, in many ways, a motherhood pension gap, as it begins to open up when women start a family,” Professor Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi from the University of Mannheim told Euronews Business. She noted that many women reduce their working hours to care for children, which is typically associated with a part-time wage penalty.

“Motherhood and reduced working hours push down both current income and later pension entitlements. They also lead to lower lifetime wages and shorter careers, leaving women with less disposable income to invest in private pensions,” she added. Niessen-Ruenzi emphasised that cross-country differences reflect variations in gender-stereotypical patterns of care work and household responsibilities.

Professor Antonio Abatemarco from University of Salerno explained that the gap stems from long-term inequalities. “These differences stem from long-term inequalities that accumulate across womens working lives, reflecting how labour markets, family policies, and pension system design interact,” he said. “The gap is therefore not a single phenomenon, but the result of three interrelated structural drivers.”

Firstly, he pointed to historically lower female labour market participation, often in informal sectors without pension contributions. Secondly, he underlined the impact of care responsibilities causing career interruptions, particularly in Western Europe. Finally, he noted that some pension reforms, like raising women’s retirement age more than men’s, can also contribute.

The average gender pension gap across European countries has declined from 28% in 2007 to 22% in 2024. The most significant decreases took place in Slovenia, Germany, and Greece, where the gap narrowed by more than 15 percentage points over 17 years. The decline is also more than 10 percentage points in Norway, Portugal, Turkey, and Luxembourg.

“Strongly declining labour market differences between men and women are driving this reduction in the GPG [in many countries], but it takes time for these changes to be fully reflected in lower pension inequalities,” noted the OECD’s Pensions at a Glance 2025 report. Among the 27 countries, the gender pension gap increased by 2 percentage points in only three: Austria, Estonia and Belgium.

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