Research finds that Ireland has a gender pension gap of 35%

The figures were released on Wednesday morning.

Research has found that Ireland has a significant gender pension gap, with retired women getting an average of  €153 less a week in pensions than men. A new report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has found that men get €433 on average per week, while women receive just €280 per week. This means that over the course of a year, retired women receive on average almost €8,000 less than men. Acording to the ERSI, the gender pay gap is largely due to differences in incomes from private and occupational pensions. 55% of retired men receive a private or occupational pension, compared to only 28% of women. For these types of pensions, research shows that lower relative years of work experience among women also increases the gap. The study shows a significant difference in the number of years worked by men and women. 93% of retired men had worked for more than 30 years, compared to 33% of retired women. Meanwhile, 3% of retired men had never worked, compared to 22% of retired women. The report also found that there was no gender difference in income poverty. However, women are less likely to receive a contributory pension and among those who do, the average income received is much lower than the average income received by men.