Echoing concerns raised by the World Economic Forum earlier this year, 10X Investments’ new South African Retirement Reality Report adds more data showing this worrying trend of women falling further behind men. 10X’s third annual Retirement Reality Report (RRR20) shows that the retirement savings gap between the genders has grown in the last year, not only because the gender pay gap has widened, but because many women continue to reject the best option they have for narrowing the gap, which is investing their money for growth.

RRR20 found that the proportion of women who said they didn’t have a retirement savings plan at all, already significantly worse than for men, had increased to 53% this year from 51% a year ago.

The report, which is based on the findings of a survey that measures the lifestyles of the universe of 15.1 million economically active South Africans, confirms the findings of the two previous reports: South Africa is sitting on a retirement timebomb and women are in a worse position than men in general.

The latest data from StatsSA shows South African women earn approximately 30% less than their male counterparts on average, a seven percentage point increase in the disparity recorded last year. As we know, this inequality is magnified when women’s careers are interrupted during pregnancy and the raising of children. It is also made worse by the fact that women at retirement age have a higher life expectancy than men, which means they require a relatively bigger retirement pot than their male counterparts.

The RRR20 echoes concerns in a release from the World Economic Forum earlier this year. According to the release: “Even before Covid-19, individuals around the world were on average outliving their retirement savings by 8-20 years; women in particular are at the sharp end of this scale, with longer lives and pension savings around 40% lower than men’s.”

Read more @IOL