Cyprus Mail 7 February 2020 - article by Annette Chrysostomou
File Photo: pensioners out demonstrating (Christos Theodorides)
Cyprus is ranked fifth in the EU when it comes to differences in pensions between men and women, a Eurostat report revealed on Friday.
In 2018 women in the EU aged over 65 received a pension that was on average 30 per cent lower than that of men, while in Cyprus this gap was 38.2 per cent.
However, according to Eurostat, over time the gender pension gap has been decreasing on average and is now 4 percentage points (pp) less compared with 2010 (34 per cent). In Cyprus, it has decreased slightly less since 2010, by 3 percentage points.
The largest difference was observed in Luxembourg, where women aged over 65 received 43 per cent less pension than men. Luxembourg was closely followed by Malta (42 per cent), the Netherlands (40 per cent), Austria (39 per cent), Cyprus (38.2 per cent) and Germany (37 per cent).
At the other end of the scale, the smallest differences in pension income between women and men were in Estonia (1 per cent), Denmark (7 per cent), Slovakia (8 per cent), Czechia (13 per cent) and Hungary (16 per cent).
Compared with 2010, the gender pension gap has decreased in the majority of EU member states. The most noticeable decreases were recorded in Greece (from 37 per cent in 2010 to 25 per cent in 2018, or -12 pp), Denmark (-11 pp), Belgium and Slovenia (both -10 pp) as well as in France (-9 pp).
In contrast, the gender pension gap increased in seven EU countries since 2010. The most significant increase was observed in Malta (from 22 per cent in 2010 to 42 per cent in 2018, or +20 pp), followed by Latvia (9 pp), while it remained unchanged in Slovakia.
In 2018, the proportion of pensioners aged over 65 at risk of poverty in the EU stood at 15 per cent, slightly above the figure of 14 per cent in 2017, yet below the risk of poverty of working age population (16 to 64 years) at almost 17 per cent. Unlike the gender pension gap, at-risk-of-poverty rate for pensioners has been rising gradually since 2013, when it stood below 13 per cent, bouncing back in 2018 well above the level experienced in 2010 (14 per cent).
In Cyprus this rate stood at 22.5 per cent in 2018, the sixth largest in the EU, stable compared to 22.6 per cent in 2017 and down from 42.3 per cent in 2010.
