Women pensioners living in Lower Silesia receive over one thousand złotys less. This results, among other things, from women’s lower earnings, the lower retirement age for women and the fact that they live longer than men. After the retirement age was lowered, women in Poland can stop working when they turn 60, while men work until the age of 65.
Meanwhile, according to GUS data for 2016, men in Poland lived an average of 73.9 years, while women lived 81.9 years. Compared with 1990, we therefore live 7.7 and 6.7 years longer, respectively. In 2017, however, the average life expectancy of Poles after reaching retirement age decreased by one month. This matters for people retiring. The lower the average, the higher the pensions. One month less in average life expectancy means a 0.5 percent increase in the benefit from ZUS.
What were the average pensions of women and men in Lower Silesia in 2017?
What causes the differences in pension amounts?
“The differences in pension amounts for women and men result not only from the fact that women work for shorter periods, earn less and statistically live longer on average than men, but also from the fact that they are usually on leave for part of their lives to raise a child or because they need to care for an ill family member, such as an elderly parent or a child with a disability,” explains Iwona Kowalska, spokeswoman for ZUS in Lower Silesia.
I. Kowalska adds: “During this time, working men continue to build their pension capital. In addition, because women in Poland live longer than men, the capital of the former is divided by a greater number of months of so-called remaining life expectancy; therefore, women’s pensions are considerably lower.”
Who lives the longest and who the shortest?
Poles still live shorter lives than residents of other European countries: men by more than 7 years and women by 4 years. Among 40 countries, Poland ranks in the third ten: men are in 27th place and women in 23rd.
According to Eurostat data for 2015, men live the longest in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. In these countries, men can expect to live to 81. The shortest-lived are Russians, at just 64.7 years.
Among women, Spaniards and Frenchwomen can be considered the most long-lived, with an average of around 86 years. The shortest-lived women in Europe are Moldovans, Russians and Ukrainians, who statistically do not reach the age of 77.