WUNRN
Women’s
Pension Rights and Survivors’ Benefits: A Comparative Analysis of EU Member
States and Candidate Countries
Authors
- Chiara Monticone, Anna Ruzik and Justyna Skiba
Published 22 April 2008
This
report presents and compares old-age income provision rules with respect to the
issue of equality between women and men in the current and future EU member
states. The report focuses on 25 member states and, to the extent possible, on
the recently acceded and candidate countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and
Croatia). The report considers various aspects of the benefits, ranging from
entitlement rules to minimum pensions, through to childcare credits and
assistance for survivors. Overall, European countries adopt similar measures
for ensuring adequate old-age income for women. The elimination of
differentiated entitlement rules for standard and early retirement plays a key
role in the reduction of the differences between men and women. In particular,
this process means a faster increase in the minimum retirement age for women
and different methods of encompassing childcare periods in the pension benefit
formulas. In the long run, the higher employment rates of women and reduced
wage disparities between men and women should lead to better individual pension
rights for women, especially in defined contribution schemes, which have
recently been introduced in some countries.
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