In contrast to other countries the gender gap in pension income in the Netherlands has not shrunk during the past 30 years, according to the OECD.

In its annual report Pension Markets in Focus, the organisation said the pension income received by women had consistently been 40% less that received by men. The gap was the same in Austria.

Last year, the European Commission’s Pension Adequacy Report suggested that the difference was 45%, the largest bar Cyprus.

However, the OECD noted that the outcome of surveys could vary due to the use of different sources of income data.

The think tank found that the gender gap in Denmark had declined by 11 percentage points to around 10% since 1990, and that in the UK it had dropped by six percentage points. 

The pension income gap in Germany had decreased by eight percentage points to around 35%, whereas the difference in Italy had remained at around 30%, according to the OECD report.

The OECD linked the large gender pension gap in the Netherlands to workplace pensions accounting for a large share of total pension income, with women entering the labour market late relative to other countries and there also being a pay gap.

However, the organisation said it expected the difference in pension income to gradually decline over the coming decades due to a rising number of women receiving an occupational pension, a decreasing pay gap as well as men increasingly switching to part time jobs.

It said the difference in accrued pension assets of the under-64 year-olds had already dropped to 25%.

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