Lhe Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, assured, on November 30, 2022 on France 2, that an objective “absolutely major” of the pension reform was to“improve our system, because it is unfair”. Following her, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, declared on several occasions that for the reform to be fair for women, the age for cancellation of the discount would remain at 67! We would therefore keep the discount, which is a very unfair reduction for incomplete careers and which therefore weighs more heavily on women. She was qualified in 2019 as “double penalty” by the High Commissioner for Pensions, Jean-Paul Delevoye. Where is the progress? The major injustice constituted by the significant inequality in pensions between women and men is not only not taken into account at all, but is very likely to increase with the postponement of the retirement age as well as with an extension of the contribution period.
Let’s recall the situation. While women’s salaries are on average 22% lower than those of men (INSEE 2022), their direct pensions are 40% lower than those of men. This figure is still 30% for new retirees who left in 2020, according to the research department of the Ministry of Labor. Retirement therefore further amplifies wage inequality. When our leaders are questioned about these pension inequalities, the classic answer is that they are reduced over time. In reality, they are stagnating, just as wage inequalities are stagnating.
The current decline in the level of pensions in relation to wages, a consequence of previous reforms, naturally affects the lowest pensions of women more seriously: the poverty rate of retired women is thus significantly higher than that of men (10 .4% against 8.5%), and this gap has tended to widen since 2012, as noted in the 2020 report of the Pensions Orientation Council (COR). The transition in 1993 to an indexation of pensions to inflation and no longer to the average wage led, in a period of low inflation, to a growing drop in pensions. Older women are the most affected.
Worsened inequalities
The COR notes that the pensioner poverty rate has increased since 2016 for people over the age of 65 who live alone; among them, this rate even reaches 16.5% for women. The announcement of a minimum pension of 85% of the minimum wage for a full career is obviously welcome… but it was already provided for in the 2003 law and has never been applied! Above all, this minimum will not concern people who are already retired.
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