PENSION REFORM AND WOMEN. The pension reform project should force women, on average, to work two months longer than men. We take stock.
[Updated January 26, 2023 at 2:33 p.m.] The debate on gender equality is back in the spotlight with the presentation of the pension reform project. Indeed, the text carried by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne could well disadvantage women who should work on average longer than men, in particular because of the extension of the contribution period (43 years), at the rate of a quarter more per year to speed up the process. A setback from which the government would have gone well, in the same way as the last media outing of the Minister responsible for relations with Parliament Franck Riester, Monday January 23 on Public Senate, which came to stop the communication of the Elysée, by recognizing that women will be “a little penalized” by this new reform. And in fact? Everyone, except some disabled or incapacitated people, will have to work longer. On the other hand, the average increase in the contribution period for a woman will be 7 months, compared to 5 months for a man.
As a reminder, a woman can benefit from “bonus quarters” during her career in two very specific cases. First of all, 4 trimesters are granted for maternity or adoption. Then, 4 additional quarters are granted for the education of this child. In other words, two two contribution, or 8 quarters per child. Let’s try to see it more clearly with a concrete example.
Today, Marie is an employee of the private sector, began her career at 22 years old. She has two children, and can therefore benefit from 16 bonus quarters. With a full contribution period (43 years), she could hope to retire at 61, with a full rate at 62. On the other hand, with the pension reform project, nothing seems to change. However, the full rate takes quite a blow, Marie will only be able to leave at full rate from the age of 64. That’s two years older than now. If the latter still wishes to retire at age 62, a discount will apply. The age of cancellation of the discount, it will not be changed by the government, it will remain at 67 years.
With the pension reform, women should receive more than today, the pension will be improved “twice as much as men on average” declared the Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal, Tuesday January 24 on the antenna of LCI. The objective is clear for the government: to reduce the gap in pension amounts according to gender. According to the government report, the pension of a woman born in 1966 will be increased by 1%, and up to 2.2% for those born after. For men, “only” 0.2% and 0.9%. A more significant increase which can be explained by the revaluation of the minimum pension, which concerns more the female sex.
Another potential novelty, to compensate for chopped careers, the periods validated under the old-age insurance for stay-at-home parents (AVPF), in particular due to parental leave, could be part of the long career system. Data subjects could therefore validate up to four additional quarters in this situation. Periods which would also be counted in the calculation of the increased minimum pension. This should increase the amount of small pensions for some women, forced to put their career on hold to take care of their child(ren).
