Women face 20% workplace pension gap

Currently 25-year-old women have, on average, £197.05 saved with the master trust compared to £213.85 for men of the same age.

In 40 years’ time, following auto enrolment minimum contributions and taking into account mean salaries for men and women over their working lives, these funds will have grown to £50,514 for men but just £40,332 for women.

If women take a five-year career break, this figure falls to £33,986.02 for women, leaving them with a pot which is 33% smaller than male counterparts.

According to a report by the Pensions Policy Institute commissioned by NOW: Pensions, over three quarters (77%) of employees earning less than the auto enrolment trigger are women. Over 50% of part-time workers earn less than the auto enrolment trigger and 81% of part-time workers are women.

The report estimates that 3 million individuals would become eligible for auto enrolment if the earnings trigger was removed.

Amy Mankelow, director of communications at NOW: Pensions, said: “Not only are women losing out during their working lives but they also face a poorer retirement as a result of the persistent gender pay gap.

“Auto enrolment does little to address this inequality as millions of women are excluded from saving altogether as they earn less than the £10,000 auto enrolment trigger. This means that a large proportion of part-time workers, who are much more likely to be women, don’t have the opportunity to save in the first place.

“We want government to remove the £10,000 auto enrolment trigger to give more women the opportunity to save.”