Men are still managing to put £700 more into their pension funds a year than their female counterparts, despite more women than ever saving for retirement.
The Scottish Widows women and pensions report shows that women putting an adequate amount into their pension funds has risen to 50 per cent.
This is up from the 43 per cent making proper provision last year and is the highest the annual report has ever shown.
An average of 12.9 per cent of a woman’s salary is being put aside for retirement compared to 12.6 per cent of the average man’s.
Despite this, however, men are still saving more as their average incomes are higher than those earned by women.
Salaries for men average at £28,091 compared to £22,490 for women and many are also losing out when they take career breaks to have children for example.
Ian Naismith, head of pensions market development at Scottish Widows, said: “It is encouraging to see a positive step change in the number of women saving adequately for retirement, especially given the challenging economic climate, but the gender gap still exists.”
The difference in numbers between men and women saving for retirement is becoming smaller, with 23 per cent of females saving nothing at all and 17 per cent of men finding themselves in the same situation.
Scottish Widows’ report found that more women over 51 were saving for their retirement than those between the age of 30 and 50, though 28 of the over-50s believe the government will contribute significantly to their retirement funds.
This is in comparison to only 12 per cent of those under 30 who think most of their retirement income will come from the state.
From next year all employees in the UK above the age of 22 and earning in excess of £7,475 will be auto enrolled into a pension scheme by their employer in order to help them save for their retirement.
Mr Naismith said: “Women often give higher financial priority to family as opposed to their pension. While this is laudable, they need to ensure that they give enough priority to providing for their own retirements.”
