The Motherhood Pension Gap in a Defined Contribution Pension Scheme—the Case of Poland
Department of Insurance, Wrocław University of Economics and Business, 53-345 Wrocław, Poland
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Sustainability 2020, 12(11), 4425; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114425
Received: 6 May 2020 / Revised: 26 May 2020 / Accepted: 27 May 2020 / Published: 29 May 2020
(This article belongs to the Section Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability)
A gender gap in pensions has recently been discussed in the context of non-discrimination and the sustainability of pension systems. Such systems in Europe are evolving towards strengthening the role of individual contributions from periods of paid work. Among other factors, the women’s pension gap is affected by interruptions in employment arising from care responsibilities. The purpose of this article is to measure the pension gap associated with having children in defined contribution pension systems. Using financial mathematics, the retirement capital of a childless woman (without breaks in work) was determined and compared with mothers of 1–4 children. The results indicate that the motherhood pension gap is approximately 4.5%–9.5%, 7.5%–15%, 9%–20%, and 12.5%–25% for mothers of 1, 2, 3, and 4 children, respectively. Measuring these individual gaps allows the cost of investing in children to be estimated. Significant for systemic and individual decisions is that the gap size is highest by the first and the second child, however the decision about the third child—relevant to the demography as ensuring the generational replacement—means the whole pension gap could rise to 20%. This could help support a policy of counteracting adverse demographic trends in fertility rates through the building of socially sustainable pensions schemes. In terms of future research, it forms the basis for building a gap measurement model that takes into account various drivers of the gender gap.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Jędrzychowska, A.; Kwiecień, I.; Poprawska, E. The Motherhood Pension Gap in a Defined Contribution Pension Scheme—the Case of Poland. Sustainability 2020, 12, 4425. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114425
AMA Style
Jędrzychowska A, Kwiecień I, Poprawska E. The Motherhood Pension Gap in a Defined Contribution Pension Scheme—the Case of Poland. Sustainability. 2020; 12(11):4425. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114425
Chicago/Turabian StyleJędrzychowska, Anna, Ilona Kwiecień, and Ewa Poprawska. 2020. "The Motherhood Pension Gap in a Defined Contribution Pension Scheme—the Case of Poland" Sustainability 12, no. 11: 4425. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114425
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