The German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) has said that the gender pensions gap between men and women within the country continues to grow.

The gap, which looks at retirement provision between men and women, currently stands at around 31.4 per cent, on average, with men receiving an average monthly pension of €1,370 and women receiving just €940.

However, the DIW has said that the noticeable differences are not just between men and women, but between women who have children and those who do not.

The gap widens with the more children that a woman has. According to the DIW, the average pension for a woman without children is €1,080 a month. However, this falls to €970 for women with one child, €920 for those with two children, and €800 for women with three or more children.

Writing in the report, the DIW said: “[Wage] differences are only one factor giving rise to the gender pension gap. The frequent employment interruptions of women, for example, for childcare or informal care provision, labour market segregation, and differences in part-time work, which can be attributed to gender-specific social norms and stereotypes, are further contributing factors.”

The DIW added: “Pension-related childcare credits, which were introduced in 1986 and have been expanded through multiple reforms, are meant to increase mothers’ individual pension entitlements. In this way, child-raising periods should reduce the gender pension gap as well as the motherhood pension gap, the difference in pension entitlements between mothers and women without children, over the long term.”

Perhaps most interestingly from a national perspective, the pension gap is considered by the DIW to be considerably higher in the western part of Germany than in the eastern part. In the west, the gender pensions gap stands at 37 per cent but is only 10 per cent in the east.

The difference, the DIW said, can be attributed primarily to differing labour market participation and employment structures when Germany was divided.

“Eastern German women in the observed cohorts,” write DIW, “worked full-time more frequently than their counterparts in the west. At the same time, the average earned income of western German men is higher than that of eastern German men.

"Thus, the average pension entitlements of 60-year-old western German men, based on the 2024 pension points, are €1,420, which is significantly higher than the average of €1,220 in entitlements received by men in the east.”

---