High risk of poverty in old age
Every third woman is threatened with a mini-pension despite a full-time job
1/15/2023 5:36 am
Around 7.1 million women work full-time in Germany. But there is hardly any sign of this in the pension account. Even with 40 years of contributions, around 2.7 million women are currently heading towards a measly pension.
Every third woman with a full-time job in Germany is heading for a net pension of less than 1000 euros even following 40 years of work. This emerges from a response from the Federal Ministry of Labor to a request from the left, which is available to the editorial network Germany. According to this, around 2.7 million women are affected. With a total of 7.1 million full-time employees, this corresponds to a share of around 38 percent.
In order to get a monthly pension of 1000 euros net, employees currently have to earn 2844 euros gross per month for 40 years. To be entitled to a pension of 1,200 euros, employees need a gross monthly wage of 3,413 euros for 40 years, the editorial network quotes from the ministry’s response.
“Catastrophic Numbers”
Accordingly, women will be disproportionately affected by low pensions. With a total of 32.6 percent, only just under a third of all full-time employees are women. But the proportion of women among full-time employees with low pensions is significantly higher: 48.5 percent of full-time employees who are heading for a pension of less than 1,000 euros even following 45 years of work are female.
In view of inflation and the already high level of old-age poverty among women, these are “catastrophic numbers,” said Left Party leader Dietmar Bartsch, who had made the request to the Ministry of Labor. “More than half of all full-time workers will receive less than 1,200 euros following 40 years of drudgery,” Bartsch told the editorial network. “Millions of women are at risk of falling into poverty in old age.”
“The relationship is not right,” Bartsch continued. Wage and pension levels are often too low, the numbers are alarming. “We need a major pension reform in Germany”,
