The average Irish woman’s pension pot is a “staggering” 40pc less than men’s.
An average pension pot for a man in Ireland is €102,000. But it is only €60,500 for women, according to research by the Irish-owned network of financial advisers Ask Acorn.
This means that Irish women have on average saved around €41,400 less into their pension pots than men, indicating a gender pension gap of 40pc, according to a survey conducted by iReach for Ask Acorn.
Three out of 10 Irish adults have no retirement savings, a situation that is supposed to be addressed with the promised launch of the My Future Fund auto-enrolment pension fund from the start of next year.
But a far higher proportion of women have no pension to draw on in retirement, other than the PRSI state pension. It pays out a maximum of €289.30 a week.
More than a third of women have no retirement savings, indicating that they are facing a ticking pensions timebomb.
In contrast, just one in four men have no retirement savings.
Women often take time out of the workforce when they become mothers. Photo: Getty
The average pension pot built up by males aged 55-plus, who are in or near retirement, is €145,000. For females, the amount falls drastically to €83,000.
On average, Irish women close to retirement have €62,000 less in their pensions than their male peers.
This indicates a gender pension gap of almost 43pc for those in or near retirement.
Across the various age groups, the average Irish person with retirement savings has built up a pension pot of €80,500.
For those with retirement savings, far more men than women have pension pots worth more than €100,000.
More than half of women with retirement savings have at most €30,000, with many holding substantially less.
By comparison, just 41pc of men have savings at or below this level.
Keith Butler, the chief executive of Ask Acorn, a network of 100 financial advisers, said the gender pensions gap was “staggering”.
Wages in some of the job sectors traditionally dominated by women are often low
He said that despite the progress on gender equality in recent years, including female participation in the workforce reaching all-time highs, women are still falling well behind men when it comes to their pension pots.
“The research points to a staggering 40pc difference between what a woman in Ireland has in her pension, and what a man has.
“And that’s if they have a pension at all – the study shows that far fewer women than men actually have any retirement savings.”
Mr Butler sad that women in Ireland typically live longer than men.
And there has been a huge increase in recent years in the number of female retirees.
He said women often earn less than men and as a result do not have as much to save into their pension as their male counterparts.
Wages in some of the job sectors traditionally dominated by women are often low.
Mothers often take time out of the workforce, or move to shorter working weeks, to look after children. Women are also three times more likely than men to work part-time.