April 2025

Seven trends shaping UK employment, incentives and pensions in 2025

As these plans evolve, their ripple effects will be felt into 2025 and beyond. Global forces add further pressure. Regulatory developments in the EU, US and beyond will demand UK employers’ attention as they adapt to the shifting landscape. We’ve identified seven key trends that will define 2025. Employers can use these insights to prioritise their strategies and stay ahead. 1. Employee litigation on the rise—new rights, new risks: The Employment Rights Bill’s sweeping reforms could trigger a surge in claims,...

March 2025

Future-Proofing the Longevity Economy: Innovations and Key Trends

By World Economic Forum The world is at a pivotal moment in its demographic transition, with more than one in four people now living in countries where the population has peaked. This shift, coupled with increasing life expectancy and declining birth rates, presents both urgent challenges and unprecedented opportunities. Building on the Longevity Economy Principles, this white paper synthesizes five key trends shaping the future of the longevity economy: building resilient public retirement systems; transitioning from savings accumulation to decumulation; enhancing the...

The value of active strategies in old-age provision

The choice between active and passive strategies should not be reduced to a binary decision, eg, based solely on fees. Instead, it should reflect the investor’s unique goals, the product framework (eg, unitlinked or pension plans) and the market environment. In the context of old-age provision, we question the suitability of passive strategies. In a competitive market situation, with greater volatility and structural shifts, we think active approaches with selective decisions have greater potential to outperform and protect...

The Causal Influence of Pension on the Participation of Older Workers in the Ghanaian Labour Market

By George Domfe, Kwadwo Opoku & Antoinette Tsiboe-Darko Population ageing has stirred up policy discourse on pension coverage in developing economies. While in most of these countries, a smaller proportion of older persons receive pensions in the form of regular payments from the state, a considerable proportion of them engage in active work to maintain their livelihood. These descriptions are typically true of Ghana. However, it remains unclear in the Ghanaian literature whether the absence of a pension is a...

A roadmap to adequate retirement incomes for all

By Phoenix Insights Achieving decent, financially secure retirements for people in the UK is an essential priority for individuals, government and industry alike. Phoenix Group previously called for a holistic review of pensions adequacy, and are pleased to see the new Government’s commitment to do so in the coming months. The long standing question of ‘how much is enough’ for retirement can be complex and wide reaching one. The question will need to be answered through a collaborative approach and followed by an action plan....

Gender pension gaps in a private retirement accounts system: A dynamic model of household labor supply and savings

By Clement Joubert & Petra E. Todd  This paper develops and estimates a dynamic model of individuals’ and couples’ labor supply, savings, and retirement decisions to analyze how the design of Chile’s privatized pension system and a reform undertaken in 2008 affect gender pension gaps and old-age poverty. Chile has one of the longest-running private retirements accounts systems in the world, which has served as a model for many countries. The paper estimates the dynamic model using pre-reform data...

On International Women’s Day, let’s focus on the gender pension gap

By Ivana Zanardo   Women in the workforce have made significant strides in recent decades: the gender wage gap is shrinking and more women hold a growing share of senior leadership positions at Canadian companies. But as we celebrate International Women’s Day, there’s another gap that should get more attention – the gender pension gap. Despite advancements made in the workplace, according to Stats Canada, women still face an annual income gap of 29 per cent. And what’s more worrisome is that we...

Pooled pension innovations offer new structures for retirement income

This article is part of a new Globe Advisor series, Pensions Unpacked, exploring how workplace pensions fit into retirement strategies, and the technical details and decisions that come with the plans. The steady decline of defined-benefit (DB) pension plans has led to the creation of new pension models aimed at helping employees save money for retirement and employers seeking to attract and retain staff. The newer plans fall into the broad category of pooled pensions. Contributors combine their savings to benefit...

February 2025

2025 Employee Sentiment Study

By AON Successful organizations recognize the critical importance of their people and what is valuable to them. Investing in their potential, aspirations and resilience, and providing them with choice and flexibility that caters to their diverse needs is not just a necessity — it is the foundation for delivering long-term sustainable growth. This study is based on findings from Aon’s Employee Sentiment survey and insights from Aon’s team of human capital specialists. It equips senior business, human resources, and people leaders...

Pensions vs earnings across Europe: The highest and lowest comparisons

Pensions in the EU amount to some three-fifths of late-career work income. In many European countries, this rate falls below 50%, making it increasingly challenging for pensioners to maintain a decent standard of living. In many European countries, pension income is significantly lower than pre-retirement earnings from work. This makes it difficult for many older people to maintain their standard of living after retirement. Nearly one in six pensioners are at the risk-of-poverty in the EU, with the rate increasing...