Women at age 55 have an average of 43 per cent less in their pension pot than men, despite parity in pension participation rates, research from Royal London has revealed.

The survey showed that while pension contributions differ significantly by age, job type, and income, the one consistent is that the gender pension gap impacts women at every stage of their career, leaving them worse off in retirement.

Indeed, despite near parity in pension participation rates between the sexes, compared to men, the research showed that women typically save less for their retirement throughout their working lives, with a gap of 16 per cent in their 30s rising to 43 per cent by the time they reach age 55.

Whilst there was once a perception that women were less likely to engage with their pension, the narrative has changed, Royal London found that, when it comes to the importance placed on pensions as a workplace benefit, there is no gender difference.

Instead, women are more likely than men to put pensions at the top of their wish list when applying for a new job.

Royal London argued that one of the main factors responsible for the gender pensions gap is the different working patterns between men and women, noting that many women take on lower paid part-time jobs to allow them to juggle employment and looking after others.

It also pointed out that, significantly, around one million women below age 50 don’t work due to caring responsibilities.

However, Royal London found that there is also a "clear imbalance" between the sexes with more men than women taking advantage of employer matching contributions, at 48 per cent compared to 41 per cent.

Affordability was a key factor in this trend, as half of women cited this as a concern, compared to 39 per cent of men who cite this as the reason for not using employer matching.

Commenting on the findings, Royal London pensions expert, Clare Moffat, said: “Millions more women may now be saving thanks to auto enrolment, but we can’t escape the fact that parenthood and caring responsibilities interrupt women’s working lives. It’s an issue that affects their take home pay, career opportunities and ultimately their pensions savings.

“The decisions taken about stepping back from work, or reducing hours to care for children, have such significant implications for the future that it’s worth considering all the options.

"It’s not that a different decision would be reached, but many women look back and wish they’d known more at the time about the actions they could have taken.

“At the start of people’s career, there’s not much of a difference in the pension savings between men and women, but the effect of having a family and reducing their hours means the gap widens significantly as time goes by.

“And on top of that, on average, women live longer and therefore have longer retirements, so rather than less savings, they actually need more money for their retirement than men.

“It’s also nice to put the myth to bed that women are less interested in pensions. A move that hopefully shows greater empowerment and control of their long-term finances.”

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