Breaking the barrier: How one company has closed the gender pension gap
It’s a hard fact that the gender pension gap in the UK jumps from £100 to £100,000 over the average woman’s working life. it’s an issue Scottish Widows has been highlighting in its Women in Retirement Report for the past 19 years.
But there’s one company that doesn’t have a gender pension gap in the Scottish Widows DC company pension scheme. And that’s highly unusual.
Forward-thinking policies
The company has achieved this thanks to policies which include generous maternity leave while maintaining full pension contributions. This has led to more women returning to work, progressing their careers and earning higher salaries with increasing pension contributions.
Just as helpful is its approach to pension enrolment, with everyone included in its DC company pension scheme regardless of age or earnings. Removing the age threshold that currently applies with auto-enrolment means some employees – men as well as women – can start to save earlier, with more years to build up their pension savings.
Clearly, they’re ahead of the government’s bill on extending auto-enrolment, a consultation on which is due later this year.
First-hand experience
The company’s approach is a direct challenge to gender pension inequality, which normally starts to widen significantly when women reach their 30s and 40s.
Childcare and returning to work part time after having a family are the biggest drivers.
Beat the pension gap
On International Women’s Day on 8 March Scottish Widows launched its Beat the Gap tool so that everyone has the chance to see how things like working part time and taking time out from work to raise a family can affect women’s retirement savings.
It’s not just for women, it’s for everyone who cares about equality – husbands, sons, partners and employers.
The Beat the Gap tool joined our International Women’s Day takeover of our Pension Mirror, first launched during Pension Engagement Season last year, to get everyone talking about pensions.
If it helps to close that gender pension gap it will be something worth shouting about – just like our client’s gender equality pension success.
In partnership with Scottish Widows
Scottish Widows is a life, pensions and investment company.
