"Equal Pension Day"

SPÖ wants to close the pension gap for women

(Bild: Abode Stock/www.peopleiamges.com)

Tuesday is "Equal Pension Day": on this day, men will have already received as much pension as women will receive by the end of the year. The SPÖ is using this occasion to criticize the government for its "inaction".

Although the problem is "well known", there are currently no plans on the part of the government to close the pension gap, criticized the deputy chairwoman of the party and women's spokeswoman, Eva-Maria Holzleitner, at a press conference on Monday.

Holzleitner: Women receive 922 euros less gross per month
"Every year the groundhog greets the groundhog", said Holzleitner. On average, women receive 40.09 percent lower pensions than men. "That is extremely high," emphasized Holzleitner. Ultimately, this means that women are "missing out on 922 euros gross per month". The government's proposals, especially those of the ÖVP, would "only widen the gap even more", keyword "grandparental leave", criticized the red women's spokeswoman.

The deputy chairwoman of the SPÖ and women's spokesperson, Eva-Maria Holzleitner

(Bild: APA/ALEX HALADA)

Icelandic equal pay law as a model
With the SPÖ's plans, however, this gap could be closed "continuously and permanently". From the Red Party's point of view, this would first of all require actual pay transparency, as women are still paid less for the same work. Holzleitner envisions a regulation similar to the Icelandic Equal Pay Act, which also provides for sanctions for companies and a reversal of the burden of proof. This would require companies to prove that higher pay is actually justified.

Negative trend in parental leave for fathers
There also needs to be an improvement in child-raising periods. Although these are taken into account, they are counted at a lower value than the current median income (2568 euros), namely 2100 euros. The SPÖ is therefore calling for an increase to at least the median income. In addition, paternal participation in parental leave must be increased. According to Holzleitner, the trend here is actually negative: "Only one in a hundred fathers takes more than six months' parental leave."

The SPÖ-affiliated Pensioners' Association also took the same line. "The relevant figures have been collected and published for ten years. The situation has only marginally improved," criticized President Peter Kostelka. If things continue at this pace, it will take "forever" to achieve equality in pensions.

SPÖ criticizes unequal distribution of care work
The women's organization of the production trade union (PRO-GE) also criticized the ÖVP and its proposed "grandparent leave". "Instead of finally taking responsibility and expanding institutional care and nursing, the ÖVP wants to shift responsibility further into the private sector," criticized Federal Women's Chairwoman Elfriede Schober. Schober sees the reasons for the pension gap in the unequal distribution of care work, longer part-time phases, lower incomes or career breaks due to child-raising and care periods.

Klaudia Frieben, Chairwoman of the Austrian Women's Association, also believes that steps need to be taken in pension law. Among other things, Frieben criticized the introduction of the "lifetime calculation" for the assessment basis instead of the best 15 years in 2003, saying that this had "destroyed" confidence in receiving an adequate pension.

The "Equal Pension Day" was put into perspective by the industry-related think tank Agenda Austria. Multiplying the average pension payments by the length of retirement shows that the gap in pension assets is significantly smaller. Although women have a significantly higher life expectancy than men, they continue to retire earlier, it said. According to Agenda Austria, women spent around 18.5 years in retirement in 1970, compared to almost 26 years today.