PENSION REFORM AND WOMEN. The debate on gender inequalities is reappearing with the government’s pension reform project. Are they really penalized? Will they have to work longer than men? Explanations.
[Mis à jour le 25 janvier 2023 à 14h12] This is the beginning of a controversy which the executive would have done well. The pension reform, in particular the raising of the legal retirement age (62 to 64 years) and the extension of the contribution period (one month per year) could penalize women more than men. And in fact? Everyone, except some disabled or incapacitated people, will have to work longer. On the other hand, the pension reform could well be unfavorable to women. Indeed, the average increase in the contribution period for a woman will be 7 months, against 5 months for a man. A trend confirmed by the Minister responsible for relations with Parliament Franck Riester, Monday, January 23 on the Public Senate channel. The latter confirms that women will be “a little penalized, we absolutely do not disagree”.
As a reminder, a woman can benefit from “bonus quarters” during her career in two very specific cases. First of all, 4 quarters are granted under the maternity or a adoption. Then, 4 additional quarters are granted for theeducation of this child. In other words, two two of contribution, that is to say 8 trimesters per child. Let’s try to see it more clearly with a concrete example.
Today, Marie is an employee of the private sector, began her career at 22 years old. She has two children, and can therefore benefit from 16 bonus quarters. With a full contribution period (43 years), she could hope to retire at 61, with a full rate at 62. On the other hand, with the pension reform project, nothing seems to change. However, the full rate takes quite a blow, Marie will only be able to leave at full rate from the age of 64. That’s two years older than now. If the latter still wishes to retire at age 62, a discount will apply. The age of cancellation of the discount, it will not be changed by the government, it will remain at 67 years.
With the pension reform, women should receive more than today, the pension will be improved “twice as much as men on average” declared the Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal, Tuesday January 24 on the antenna of LCI. The objective is clear for the government: to reduce the gap in pension amounts according to gender. According to the government report, the pension of a woman born in 1966 will be increased by 1%and up to 2.2% for those born after. For men, “only” +0.2% and +0.9%. A larger increase which can be explained by the revaluation of the minimum pensionwhich concerns more the female sex.
Another potential novelty, to compensate for the chopped careersthe periods validated under the old-age insurance for stay-at-home parents (AVPF), in particular because of parental leave, could be part of the long career system. The persons concerned could therefore validate up to four additional quarters in this situation. Periods which would also be counted in the calculation of the increased minimum pension. This should increase the amount of small pensions for some women, forced to put their career on hold to take care of their child(ren).