social security; public pension; gender pension gap; retirement; inequality; redistribution
Abstract :
[en] In recent years, the gender pension gap (GPG) has received increased attention, highlighting disparities in retirement benefits between men and women. This paper explores how the redistributive corrections implemented in the Belgian public pension system impact the GPG. Special emphasis is placed on the variability of the GPG depending on the assumptions made regarding the attribution of the household supplement as well as the income concept used for the calculation. The results show that the redistributive corrections lead to a reduction in the GPG on average. This reduction is greater at the lower distribution compared to the upper part of the distribution. In general, the far biggest impact comes from the derived pension rights. Furthermore, the GPG varies greatly depending on the assumptions made, suggesting that interpreting the GPG is not as straightforward as it initially appears, and that such sensitivity checks are important to better understand the situation at hand.
