in Italy persistent inequalities between women and men

Between a labor market that is unfavorable to them and insufficient consideration of the domestic work they provide to take care of the youngest and the oldest, women continue to be the losers of the Italian pension system. The data published by the INPS, the National Social Security Institute, in its 2022 report showed this once again.

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Admittedly, the wage gap between men and women is relatively small in Italy, thanks to a rather egalitarian distribution in the public sector and the fact that women who gain access to employment in general have a higher level of education than that of men. But, among other factors, differences in access to the Italian labor market, with lower participation of women, continue to widen the gender gap in pensions, with pensions received by women accounting for 60% of those received by men, according to the INPS.

Furthermore, only 45% of retired women receive pensions resulting from their past professional activity, when this is the case for 70% of men. They are also overrepresented among the recipients of small pensions, while men are more represented as the brackets increase.

Family obligations

These inequalities are also verified from the point of view of differences in capital accumulation, even if Italy is very close to the European average in this area. Thus, according to the “Global Gender Wealth Equity 2022” study, by the insurance consultancy and brokerage group WTW, the wealth built up by women in Italy at the time of retirement corresponds to 76% of that of men.

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Beyond the hourly wage gaps – small, with a rate of 6% which can however reach 17% in the private sector – gender inequalities in the pension system are linked to the family obligations imposed on women. in Italy. The mechanisms for reconciling support for children or elderly parents are not enough to allow women to reconcile professional life and family life in an optimal way.

The fragmentation of women’s careers and its corollary, unaccounted domestic work, have repercussions at retirement age

The Italian case is indeed enlightened, according to the WTW study, by the particularly expensive nature of childcare services which can encourage mothers to give up their activity in order to be able to raise their children, unpaid domestic work further aggravating the gaps.

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