According to new analysis published last week by the TUC, women are more than twice as likely as men to miss out on being in a workplace pension scheme. They are also more likely to suffer from a huge pensions income gap.

A woman looking out of a window

Although employers are required by law to enroll workers into a pension automatically, 1.4 million women earn less than the qualifying threshold of £10,000 a year or more.

Almost one in nine women are in jobs where their employers do not have to enter them into a workplace pension, while the figure is less than one in 20 for men.

According to research by Prospect Union, there is also a huge pensions income gap between men and women - currently 40.5% per cent, which is more than twice the gender pay gap.

The TUC has identified several reasons for the gap:

  • The unequal division of caring responsibilities means that women are much more likely to take time out of work or work part-time to look after children.
  • The impact, over time, of the gender pay gap at work.
  • Gaps in pensions auto-enrolment.
  • Historic differences in national insurance have left women with lower state pensions on average.

The TUC is, therefore, calling on the government to take urgent action which could include:

  • Introducing funded, high-quality childcare, available to all, free at the point of use.
  • Fixing the staffing crises in social care and childcare.
  • Introducing better measures to address the gender pay gap such as mandatory action plans along with pay reporting.
  • Introducing a statutory requirement for ministers to report on the gender pension gap.
  • Fixing auto-enrolment so that it works for people in low-paid or part-time jobs by:
    • Removing the £10,000 earnings threshold so that employers must opt all workers into a workplace pension.
    • Scrapping the lower earnings limit to calculate contributions from the first pound of earnings.
    • Setting out a timetable to increase statutory minimum employer contributions from three per cent so that all workers will benefit from decent contributions.

To read the report in full, click here.