The Netherlands boast a history of large gender pension gaps (GPG). Nowadays women on average receive 40 percent less benefits from occupational pension plans than men, resulting in the second largest GPG at EU-level. The new Future of Pensions Law of 2023 did not include reducing the pension gap as a goal and may even lead to a larger gap for some groups of workers because the paid-up premiums at the start of a career become more important (due to a more important role of investment income) for the paid-out pension at retirement. Since in early career on average more women than men work part time or temporarily quit their job due to (unpaid) care tasks, this might affect them disproportionally. Taking into account the large gender pay gap and the fact that on average more women work in lower paid jobs and sectors, that are vital for society, such as education and health care, the new law is a missed opportunity to address the persistently large gap.
Our research shows that the government has been gender-negligent by failing to set reduction of the pension gap as a goal in the new law and by not carrying out a gender impact assessment nor collecting relevant data, despite warnings of indirect discrimination on the basis of gender from the Institute of Human Rights. In addition, financial compensation measures, now applicable to age groups, were not considered for gender nor were other mitigating measures investigated or prescribed. Government’s current policy of stimulating women to work more hours in (better) paid jobs remains unaltered. Therefore, government is falling short in its constitutional duty of care towards all its citizens and of its equal treatment obligations. The necessity to ‘fix the pension system’ instead of ‘fixing the women’ is apparent.
- Linda Senden, Professor of European Law at the University of Utrecht, who leads the RE-WIRING project.
- Mirella Visser, Director of the Centre for Inclusive Leadership, who co-conducted research with Senden on gender treatment in pension law.
>> Read ” Nieuwe pensioenwet kan slechter uitpakken voor vrouwen die deeltijd werken“.
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