Women are expected to reach retirement with an average of just 74 per cent of the wealth accumulated by men, a global study from WTW has found.

As reported by our sister publication, Pensions Age, the WTW Global Gender Wealth Equity report showed that the differences in wealth at retirement between the genders across all countries included in the analysis ranged from 60 per cent at worst to 90 per cent at best.

Furthermore, the study found that the gender wealth gap at retirement increased with workplace seniority, with women in senior expert and leadership roles hitting retirement with less than two-thirds (62 per cent) of the accumulated wealth of their male counterparts.

For mid-level professional and technical roles, the gap was 69 per cent, while for frontline operational roles it was 89 per cent.

In the UK, the average woman at retirement had a wealth level of 71 per cent the size of the average man’s.

This was three percentage points below the global average and only just above the Netherlands (70 per cent) as the largest wealth gap at retirement in Europe.

Overall, Europe had the has the smallest gender wealth gap of all regions, with women expected to accumulate 77 per cent of men’s wealth levels at retirement.

WTW senior director, integrated & global solutions, Manjit Basi, commented: “The results from our global analysis are startling. It shows that there is a gender wealth gap consistently across the 39 countries that we studied.

“The primary drivers contributing to gender-based wealth disparity include gender pay gaps, and delayed career trajectories. Additionally, gaps in financial literacy and family caregiving responsibilities outside the workplace influence women’s participation in paid employment and therefore their ability to build wealth.

“It’s imperative that activities around gender diversity, equity and inclusion broaden to look at economic wealth at the end of women’s working careers. Pay is a fundamental factor that underlies the gender wealth gap and while addressing the gender pay gap will partially close the wealth gap, it won’t eliminate it entirely.”

WTW head of Great Britain, John Ball, added: “In the UK, the lack of affordable and accessible childcare and disproportionate share of unpaid care work that women assume adds to the challenges of generating equitable retirement wealth. 

“Although there is shared parental leave, this is not well utilised by men, and this needs to change to realise more equitable wealth outcomes.”

Globally, the USA’s gender wealth gap was just above the global average at 75 per cent, while Canada performed slightly better at 78 per cent.

Nigeria had the highest gender wealth gap in the study at 60 per cent, followed by Argentina at 61 per cent, and Mexico and Turkey at 63 per cent.

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