Friday, September 26, 2014

Working women only putting enough aside for €2,000-a-year pension

This story written by Charlie Weston,  and published in March, related to the Irish situation, but I am sure the situation is the same in other western countries.

THE average woman wants to retire on €40,000 a year, but most only put enough money aside to get a pension of €2,000 a year.

Working women want to retire on big pensions but most are putting too little into a fund to realise their dream.

A new survey, from pensions provider Standard Life and the Connect Women in Pensions group, found the average working woman has a pension pot of just €45,000 – this would provide an annual income of around €2,000.

These women should get a state pension worth around €12,000 a year, but will still need a pension pot of €500,000 to meet their expectation of a €40,000 a year pension, Standard Life's Aileen Power said.

"If you are 20 that means saving €240 per month, if you're 30 that means saving €432 per month, if you're 40 it means saving €840 per month and so on," she said.

Ms Power said it was clear that most women were not saving nearly enough to provide the sort of pension they were seeking.

"If working women want to aim for half their final salary as a pension, they need to save at least 30pc of their annual salary per year," she said.

If women want less, they should try to calculate how much they need to live on in retirement and work back to see how much they need to save monthly, she said.

Meanwhile, trade unions have claimed that the recovery in jobs is leaving women behind.

There is no sign of a significant employment growth for women, an Irish Congress of Trade Unions conference in Wexford was told. Unite regional equalities organiser, Taryn Trainor, said that women must share equally in the recovery.

Ahead of International Women's Day on Saturday, Ms Trainor said: "The latest figures show that total employment growth, including self-employed, over the past year, was just 1.2pc for women.

"When it comes to employees, there was only a fractional increase – 0.4pc for women, and employment for young women – those aged under 35 – has actually fallen.

"At the same time, nearly one in 10 women is under-employed – either working part-time because she cannot access full-time work, or working part-time and unable to get sufficient hours to earn a decent wage.

"All the evidence shows that women were disproportionately impacted by the recession and the austerity response. Now we are witnessing a 'womanless jobs recovery'," Ms Trainor said.

Irish Independent

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