Unemployed women received average 12% less benefit than men in 2021
"Unemployed women receive, on average, 12% lower unemployment benefits than those received by unemployed men," announced the trade union CGTP.
Only half of the unemployed women had unemployment benefits in 2021 and received on average 12% less than men, due to the wage inequality that persists and the insecurity of employment contracts, the trade union, CGTP, reported Monday.
CGTP crossed Social Security data with actual unemployment data, finding that in the first three quarters of 2021, “close to half of unemployed women workers had no access to any unemployment benefit” and those who did receive it earned less than men, when the average benefit amount is below the poverty line.
“Unemployed women receive, on average, 12% lower unemployment benefits than those received by unemployed men, which is related to wage discrimination that the former are subjected to”, the trade union said in an analysis released to the press, regarding Equality Week, scheduled for the beginning of March.
According to the union, “unemployment benefits are generally very low: of only €534/month in 2021 for all workers, a figure below the poverty threshold (€554).”
“Low wages, irregularity in careers due to insecure labour contracts and unemployment, as well as non-declaration or under-declaration of wage income, result in low social benefits – namely regarding unemployment, sickness protection and pensions – so low that they are not even enough to lift many workers out of poverty”.
Inequality in social benefits is also seen in relation to sickness benefit, a benefit in which women are around 60% of beneficiaries.
“In 2020 the daily amount was €21.20 for men and €16.90 for women, that is, a 20% difference in favour of men. This difference has been decreasing over the years but increasing in 2020”.
According to the CGTP, something similar is happening with pensions, as “the average value of pensions is very low, particularly for women”.
In the old-age pensions of the general regime, where women represent 53% of pensioners, the average was less than €502 in 2020, also below the poverty threshold, but there is a huge disparity between the amounts received by men and women, with the former receiving, on average, €647 and women only €367, i.e. a gap of 43% which has hardly changed since 2010.
The differential is smaller and has decreased in more recent pensions, but it was still 39% in pensions awarded in 2020, with men receiving €724, on average, and women only €444.
For the CGTP, these differences “reflect both the level of income declared to Social Security by working men and women, and the contributory density”.
Women old-age pensioners have shorter contribution careers, as on average they have 10 years fewer contribution records than men, although among new pensioners the divergence is smaller, but even so it was still six years in 2020.
In disability pensions, where women have a 48% weighting, the figures are also low, with pensions of €363 paid to women in 2020 and €397 in new pensions awarded that year.
In these pensions, the differential between men and women was 19% in 2020 for the total pensions in payment and 17% in the new pensions.
In widowhood survival pensions, where women represent 81% of the total number of beneficiaries, the opposite is true, with women receiving, on average, higher amounts (around €283 in 2020), due to the fact that the pension is calculated on the basis of the pension of the deceased spouse.
In relation to other non-contributory Social Security benefits aimed at people in situations of poverty and social exclusion, the greatest proportion of women receiving the Social Integration Income (52% of the total), as well as those requesting the Solidarity Supplement for the Elderly (70% of the total), stand out.
“All these situations result in greater poverty among women,” considered the CGTP.
