Abstract
In all 5 of the countries studied, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, France and Italy, women live longer than men and risk having a lower amount of basic pension. This research examines the variables of age, work experience, marital status, educational level, and number of children as predictors of pension amount for women. Unlike men, marital status has a significant impact on pensions; widows have a higher basic pension amount than married women; never married and divorced women do better than married women in Germany, France and Belgium.
This research uses the SHARE data from Wave 5 to establish the basic pension amount. This pension consists of the state managed retirement pension plus old age pensions. These sources provide the principal income for the majority of retirees in these countries as the wage and salary related private occupational pension has limited impact on post retirement income for this cohort. The sample consists of all women over 65 who do not receive any work related income and report a pension amount for the last year of more than 1000 euro.
Initial results indicate that level of education is a significant predictor of pension amount in all countries studied. The women’s education is a factor independent of her work experience and probably reflects her marriage prospects. Years of work experience is a significant predictor of pension amount for all countries except Belgium while the number of children is significant only in Germany. Final results will compare equations for women with those for men.