In Mexico, women’s pensions are around 35 percent lower than men’s at the end of their working lives. This inequality responds on the one hand to the fact that men enter the occupational market earlier, but also to the difference in salaries and the overload of unpaid work that is left to them, reported the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
In its report on pensions, the organization highlighted the inequality that accompanies workers not only when they are in the labor market, but also when they leave it. At the same time, he reiterated that demographic aging, caused by the decline in the birth rate and the increase in life expectancy, will continue to increase the fiscal pressure on pension systems.
At this point, the OECD emphasizes that in general – on the average of the countries that comprise it – in 2050 there will be 52 people aged 65 or over for every 100 of working age, which is considered to be between 20 and 64 years. That is, practically for every two people of working age, there will be one in retirement.
Increase the retirement age
“Population aging is a key structural challenge for OECD countries, with important economic, tax and social implications. It is estimated that the working-age population will decrease by 13 percent in the next 40 years and that, as a consequence, GDP per capita will reduce by 14 percent between now and 2060, which will exert downward pressure on public revenues, while aging-related spending will increase,” said Mathias Cormann, Secretary General of the OECD. OECD.
According to your Pensions overviewthe OECD highlighted that Mexico is one of the countries where the number of older adults – aged 65 or older – will grow more rapidly in relation to the working-age population (20 to 64 years). It is expected that between 2025 and 2050 this proportion of the country’s population will grow three times faster than it did between 2000 and 2025 and that in the last quarter of the century – from 2075 to 2100 – this growth will be at least five times faster than the current one.
“As we live longer and enter old age in better health, we need to extend working lives. Countries must increase the effective retirement age and promote work opportunities for older people to ensure the financial sustainability of the pension system, economic security in old age and strong economic growth,” Cormann said in general comments on the pension situation in OECD economies.
Compensation
In addition to demographic pressures, which are a constant in the discussion of the Pensions overviewin this installment the organization stated that, on average, women in OECD countries receive withdrawals one quarter (23 percent) less than those of men. “And poverty in old age affects them disproportionately,” he stressed. In Japan, this gap reaches 47 percent. However, Mexico is not completely behind: for every 100 pesos that a man receives in his pension, women receive an average of 65. Hence, the OECD recognizes the introduction of the Pensión Mujeres Bienestar program, which is given to women before the age of 65, as a way to compensate for unpaid work.
“Gender differences in accumulated lifetime earnings, resulting from disparities in employment, hours worked and hourly wages, represent, on average, 35 percent, and constitute the main cause of the pension gap.
“The unequal distribution of unpaid work also has important implications,” the OECD emphasized in its report.