Women and the Pension Gap: Why It Happens and How to Close It

The gender pension gap is larger than the gender pay gap, and it compounds over an entire working life rather than a single year’s salary. Different measures give different numbers, but every credible measure points the same direction: women retire with substantially less pension wealth than men, on average - a gap that matters even more given the State Pension age itself is on the rise, meaning private savings need to stretch further before that state support arrives.

How big is the gap?

Estimates vary depending on exactly what’s being measured, which is worth understanding rather than fixating on one headline figure:

• Looking at median pension wealth among people who hold any private pension, women aged 55–59 hold roughly half the pension wealth of men in the same age group.
• Including everyone in that age group, whether or not they hold any pension at all, the gap widens further, since women are also more likely to have no private pension wealth whatsoever.
• Industry research looking at total savings by retirement age has found gaps of around 50–55% between men’s and women’s average pension pots.
• The gap is narrowest in defined benefit pensions (which pay a guaranteed income regardless of pot size) and widest in defined contribution pensions - now the dominant type for most private-sector workers.

Why it happens

• The gender pay gap itself - lower average hourly earnings mean lower pension contributions in pound terms, even at an identical contribution percentage.
• Career breaks for childcare or caring responsibilities, which mean years without employer pension contributions, and sometimes without personal contributions either.
• Higher rates of part-time work among women, which can mean falling below auto-enrolment earning thresholds in some jobs even while working several part-time roles.
• Multiple part-time jobs, each below the individual auto-enrolment earnings trigger (£10,000 a year per job), can mean someone earning a reasonable combined income across two or three jobs is auto-enrolled in none of them.

Practical steps that help, whatever your income

• Opt in even if you’re not automatically enrolled. If you earn between £6,240 and £10,000 in a job, you can ask to opt in and your employer must still contribute - this doesn’t happen automatically below the £10,000 trigger.
• Check National Insurance credits during career breaks. Claiming Child Benefit (even at nil rate if a partner’s income means it’s clawed back) can protect your State Pension record during time off work - this is often missed.
• Discuss pension contributions explicitly during parental leave with your employer - statutory rules on how contributions are calculated during periods of reduced or no pay vary, and it’s worth understanding rather than assuming.
• Consider a spousal pension contribution if one partner has paused earning - a non-earning partner can still have up to £3,600 gross paid into a pension a year with tax relief added, even with no income of their own.
• Revisit contributions after a career break ends, since catching up even partially, as early as possible, benefits from more years of compounding than waiting.

What’s being done at a policy level

The government introduced an official measure of the gender pensions gap in 2023 and reports on it annually. A Pensions Commission, launched in 2025, is examining broader retirement adequacy questions, including how the system could better serve women and others with non-standard working patterns. Proposals under discussion include reviewing the £10,000 auto-enrolment earnings trigger and the lower earnings limit, which industry analysis suggests could bring hundreds of thousands more women into workplace pension saving if changed - though no decision had been confirmed as of mid-2026.

The bottom line

The gender pension gap is real, well-documented, and driven by structural factors - career breaks, part-time work, and the underlying gender pay gap - rather than individual choices about saving. If you’ve had a career break or work part-time, checking your NI credits, opting in where you’re not automatically enrolled, and reviewing spousal contribution options are concrete steps that can help close the gap in your own retirement planning.