Gender pension gap: something's not right!

"The gender pension gap between men and women is up to almost 40% in Europe. It is obvious that something isn’t right! Dealing with this unacceptable situation, we experience a deep unfairness towards all women who, when retiring, lose their financial autonomy and can be subject to severe precariousness and poverty, and lose their will to put an end to this outrageous condition by all means possible", declared Constance Le Grip, EPP Group Spokeswoman on the need for an EU strategy to end and prevent the gender pension gap, adopted today during the plenary session of the European Parliament.

"The EPP Group has always fought to protect women’s rights. Today, we call on all the European Heads of State and Government to tackle, with the help of the European Commission, the problem of the gender pension gap by setting out an efficient strategy to put an end to this issue. Without going against the Member States’ sovereignty to define, as they wish, their pension system, we invite them to recognise the value of women’s work by encouraging their professional integration, reducing the gender pay gap with men (which is still up to 16.4%) and improving the balance between professional and personal life", explained Le Grip and Agnieszka Kozłowska-Rajewicz MEP, EPP Group Spokeswoman on the issue in the European Parliament’s Employment Committee.

"Pension gaps reflect differences from the past that have consequences all through life: part-time employment, longer and more frequent career breaks, reduced salary for the same job, unequal responsibilities of family care; women are victims of so many small inequalities that, in the end, represent a bottomless pit. We also call on the Member States to mobilise to fight against these differences and to not only set correction mechanisms for pension gaps a posteriori", concluded the MEPs.