March 2021
09Mar

Taking a workforce break to raise children hurts retirement savings – economist

By Margarida Correia Taking time off from the workforce to take care of children can put a serious dent in workers’ long-term retirement savings. That was one of the central points that Michael Madowitz, an economist with the Center for American Progress, made as the keynote speaker Monday at Pensions & Investments' 2021 Defined Contribution Virtual Conference. A 29-year-old woman earning $44,000 who decides to take two years off for raising a child would not simply lose $88,000 for the two years she...

March 9, 2021
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08Mar

UK. Women would have to work 40 years longer to close the gap.

Mothers face more insecure and lower-paid work after having children, official figures suggest. Women with dependent children are seven times more likely to work part-time than men, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). More than 15% of mums also say they are economically inactive because of caring responsibilities, versus 1.9% of dads. One analyst said "millions of mums" were being forced to "pay the price" of a less secure career. The new research found that while mums who are employed were...

March 8, 2021
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08Mar

Jamaica. Ageing women face pension crisis

Kingston vendor Annie Ivey is just two years short of being 80 and has been working her entire life in different low-paying jobs but has never had a pension plan. She has no clue when she will retire. “Anytime mi cyah go nuh more. Mi nuh sick yah now, so me can work,” said Ivey, who has been vending in the Cross Roads Market for more than two decades. Ivey is among thousands of older Jamaican women who are facing the risk...

March 8, 2021
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05Mar

E.U. Pushes Companies to Close Gender Pay Gap

Pushing member states to address salary disparities between men and women, the European Union revealed details on Thursday of a proposed law that would require companies to divulge gender pay gaps and give job candidates access to salary information in employment interviews. It also would provide women with better tools to fight for equal pay. The move comes as female workers across the world have been disproportionately affected by the economic repercussions of the coronavirus crisis, and it could lead...

March 5, 2021
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04Mar

UK. Women retirees win £2.7bn for underpaid pensions

About 200,000 women could be in line for payouts averaging £13,500 to top-up the underpayment of their state pension for up to two decades. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) revealed details of the underpayments on Wednesday. The errors focus on automatic cash increases for certain married women, widows and over-80s dating back to 1992 with "enhanced" pensions. The DWP estimated the bill for tackling the shortfalls to be about £2.7bn. The underpayment relates to the "old" state pension system - affecting...

March 4, 2021
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February 2021
25Feb

Emerging Europe strong on women’s economic opportunities but dragged down by low pensions

Countries from the emerging Europe region performed well on the latest global survey of women’s economic opportunities from the World Bank. The post-socialist countries of Central, Southeast and Eastern Europe and Eurasia had an average score of 86.4 points out of 100, while globally, women had just three-quarters of the legal rights afforded to men on average around the world. The report “Women, Business and the Law 2021”, looks at laws and regulations in eight areas that affect women’s economic opportunities...

February 25, 2021
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24Feb

US. Women’s Retirement Savings Especially Affected by the Pandemic

By Amanda Umpierrez The pandemic has aggravated financial insecurity for millions of American workers, but data shows it’s affected women more severely than men. A study by Nationwide found that among 297 women with investable assets of $100,000 or more, 72% believe the pandemic had a negative impact on their retirement savings. Additionally, women listed losses from the pandemic as their top financial concern last year. Other worries involved protecting assets, health care costs and longevity risk during retirement. “With women, when...

February 24, 2021
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January 2021

29Jan

US. Pandemic Widens Retirement Planning Gender Gap

The pandemic has widened the gender gap for retirement planning, and women investors are less optimistic, more concerned and less prepared to protect assets than their male counterparts, according to a new survey. “Women are concerned about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their finances and the resulting uncertainty can make planning for the future — and their retirement — more difficult,” Ann Bair, senior vice president of marketing for Nationwide Financial, said in a statement about the...

January 29, 2021
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November 2020

27Nov

With more childcare and domestic work, the pandemic poses a ‘real danger’ to women’s progress, UN finds

Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, women have been bearing the brunt of extra childcare duties and unpaid domestic work, a study by the United Nations (UN) has found. Women in a number of countries around the world have been spending around 31 hours on average a week on childcare, the study by the UN’s gender equality body, UN Women, found. This was an average 5.2 hours a week more than pre-pandemic time spent on childcare,...

November 27, 2020
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11Nov

South Africa. The scary facts about the gender pension gap

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,...

November 11, 2020
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