Women, "big losers" of pension reform?

Women are the "big winners" of the pension reform of the executive, faith of High Commissioner Retirement, Jean-Paul Delevoye, committed. "We will already ensure that this new system is more redistributive and reduce inequalities between pensions of men and women," he said last March. But some doubt it. A forum published Monday, December 9 by the group "Nos retraites" on the site Mediapart says the opposite.

Everyone agrees, however, on one point: the current pension system penalizes women. And especially mothers who work longer to compensate for careers interrupted by pregnancy, parental leave, part-time work, periods of unemployment. While the participation rate of men increases with the arrival of the first child, that of women decreases, and even more so from the third child. As a logical consequence, in 2018, the average age of retirement was 62.4 years for men against 63 years for women.

>> Read also: Ten things to know about the pension reform project

"Women will not be spared"

Moreover, the amounts of pensions received by women are well below those of men. The low pensions of women are a reflection of the professional inequalities that persist between men and women during their professional career. Currently, a woman receives an average of € 1,123 gross monthly pension, excluding reversion, against € 1,933 for a man.

Given this fact, how will the new pension system worn by the government benefit women, as the executive insists? In its allegations, the government emphasizes above all the 25% of women "forced to work until the age of the full rate" to avoid the discount, that is to say at 67 years. Indeed, they will be able to leave with a full pension at age 64 with the new calculation.

But for the remaining 75%, nothing exciting on the horizon, deplores Agathe, spokesman for the collective "Our retreats". "Everyone will lose out with this new reform, says the feminist activist contacted by France 24. And women will not be spared.Refining the pension system could have been an opportunity to correct the inequalities in wages between men and women, but with these new rules, on the contrary, women will be the big losers. "

Widows and divorced persons in question

Starting with widows. In the interests of simplification, the government intends to replace the 13 rules currently in force on survivors' pensions with a "single device". The beneficiary will no longer receive a fixed portion of the pension of the deceased spouse. The new system is part of a principle of common pot where everyone will receive 70% of the level of retirement of the household. Problem, it will take longer to collect it. Because the age of entitlement would increase to 62 years against 55 years today to the general scheme, and no age threshold for the civil service. Ninety percent of its beneficiaries are women. "Extra years of precariousness for women", storms the association manager.

Other "losers", divorced women, insists one within the collective "Our retreats". Also in the context of survivor pensions, this right now acquired for divorced or remarried persons would disappear with the new calculation for married persons after the reform. "A provision that calls into question the financial independence of women, forced to stay with their spouse to avoid falling into precariousness," says Agathe.

Pregnant mothers

But the biggest losers of the reform remain the mothers, according to the calculations of Bruno Chrétien of the Social Protection Institute (IPS), a laboratory of ideas resistant to the new reform.

In order to favor women, the new system provides for a 5% increase in pension entitlements per child and from the first child, compared to 10% currently for mothers and fathers with three or more children. This increase can be shared between both parents and will be allocated by default to the mother.

According to the IPS, this supposedly beneficial reform, especially for lone mothers, would result in a significant loss of income for couples with one or more children. In fact, this bonus will replace the free trimesters allocated to mothers (eight per child in the private sector, two to four in the public), which allow pensions to be increased or to leave earlier. According to the calculations of the IPS, a couple who contributed an overall salary of € 35,000 per year for 162 quarters each would report a loss of € 10,624 per year, or more than 20% of the amputated income.

"Incomplete simulations that do not take into account solidarity mechanisms in the universal pension system," defended Jean-Paul Delevoye before the data provided by the IPS, evoking "a partial argument and voluntarily dependent" .

"Of course, there will not be only winners in the new scheme," he was quick to add to the entourage of the High Commissioner, referring to the shortfall of the mother of more than three children. "But we decided to take all the family rights money and redistribute it in a constant envelope." Except that no one knows how this envelope will be redistributed. "We fear that this envelope becomes a variable of adjustment which disappears in period of lean cow", regrets still Agathe.

As for the revaluation of the minimum pension to 85% of net Smic, about 1,000 euros, Jean-Paul Delevoye says that women will also be "the first beneficiaries." With one condition: it will be necessary to have a complete career, to have contributed 43 years for the generation born in 1973. Not enough to reassure the women for the hour. Édouard Philippe will however have to work on Wednesday, when he will reveal "the entirety of the project of the government".

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