The gender pay gap is a well-observed phenomenon across Europe. According to Eurostat, women in the EU earned 12% less than men in 2023. In other words, for every 100 euros earned by men, women earned just 88 euros.
When it comes to pensions, the disparity widens even further. In 27 European countries, including non-EU countries, women receive significantly lower pension benefits than men. On average, women’s pension income is 22% lower than men’s. In some major economies, the gap is more than 35%, according to the OECD.
In 2024, the gender pension gap ranged from around 6% in Estonia to 37% in the UK. The OECD average is 23% and the European average for the 27 countries included in the list is 22%. This means that on average across Europe, women receive just 78 euros in pension income, compared to 100 euros for men.
In some countries, the gender gap in pensions exceeds 30%. In addition to the United Kingdom, these included the Netherlands, Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland, and Ireland.
The lowest gaps are in Estonia, Iceland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Denmark, all below 10%.
“Mother’s pension gap”
“The gender pension gap is in many ways the same as the motherhood pension gap, because the gap starts to widen when women start a family,” Professor Alexandra Niessen Luenzi from the University of Mannheim told Euronews Business.
She noted that many women reduce their working hours to care for children, and this usually comes with a part-time wage penalty.
“Motherhood and reduced working hours reduce current earnings and subsequent pension entitlements. It also leads to lower lifetime wages and shorter careers, leaving women with less disposable income unable to invest in private pensions,” she added.
Niessen-Luenzi emphasized that cross-national differences reflect differences in gender-stereotypical patterns of care work and household responsibilities. In conservative welfare states such as Germany, a combination of high rates of part-time work for women, long career breaks, and joint household taxation all contribute to widening this gap.
In contrast, Northern Europe and some Central and Eastern European countries tend to have much smaller pension gaps between men and women. In these regions, women’s full-time employment histories tend to be more similar to men’s, childcare arrangements are widely available, and pension plans include more redistributive elements and credits for caregiving periods.
Gaps remain large, but progress is being made gradually
The average gender pension gap in European countries has decreased from 28% in 2007 to 22% in 2024. The biggest declines were in Slovenia, Germany and Greece, where inequality has fallen by more than 15 percentage points (pp) over the past 17 years.
Norway, Portugal, Türkiye and Luxembourg also saw declines of more than 10 points.
The OECD’s Pensions Overview 2025 report notes that “significant reductions in the labor market gap between men and women are driving lower GPGs (in many countries), but it will take time for these changes to be fully reflected in a reduction in the pension gap.”
Out of 27 countries, only three – Austria, Estonia and Belgium – saw the gender pension gap widen by two percentage points. In all other countries, the differences decreased, but in some cases the changes were very small.
Consequences of long-term inequality
Antonio Abbatemarco, a professor at the University of Salerno, told Euronews Business: “These differences reflect how labor markets, family policies and pension system design interact and result from long-term inequalities that accumulate over women’s working lives.” “This gap is therefore not a single phenomenon, but the result of three interrelated structural factors.”
First, Abbatemarco explained that in many European countries, particularly in Southern and Eastern Europe, women have historically participated later in the labor market than men, often in the informal sector where pension contributions are not paid. Activities such as domestic service remain largely informal and are primarily carried out by women, who may not qualify for a pension even after many years of work.
Second, he emphasized the impact of caregiving responsibilities. In Western European countries, he argued, the main problem is no longer entry into the labor market, but the interruptions caused by childbirth and caregiving responsibilities. In countries such as Germany and Austria, women returning from maternity leave often move into part-time work, resulting in lower contributions and slower wage growth.
Finally, Abbatemarco pointed out that women are losing out due to recent pension reforms. For example, Slovenia has raised the retirement age for women more than men since 1999, thereby reducing the gender gap, according to the OECD’s Pensions Overview 2025 report.
Public pensions and employer pensions
Ines Guilmin, a PhD candidate at the University of Antwerp, highlighted the relative importance of state and employer pensions. Total retirement income. In countries with strong multi-pillar pension systems, such as the Netherlands, a large proportion of pension income is directly tied to past employment and wages. Private pensions tend to widen gender disparities because access to and contributions to employer pension plans have a strong gender component, and these private plans often lack solidarity mechanisms.