The gender gap in pensions in Italy and Poland

The article discusses the gender pension gap understood as the difference between the amounts of pensions received by men and women, focusing on Italy and Poland. It analyzes the inequalities and changes in men’s and women’s pensions and identifies the causes of such inequalities. As a result of the analysis, an attempt is made to identify the most important factors affecting inequalities in the pension amounts. The study finds that the retirement age gap and the related years in employment figures for men and women have a significant impact on the pension gap, in addition to the existence of the pay gap between the two sexes. Life expectancy and the working and post-working age population structure are factors that affect the pension gap even further. A comparison between Italy and Poland allows for the conclusion that although the pension gap is present in both the countries, the former presents a lower one than the latter. Moreover, the actions planned to be taken in Italy are bound to reduce the gap even further. On the contrary, not only is Poland’s pension gap widening, but there are also few factors likely to restrain it in the future.