Work Part-time And Earn 94% Full-time Pension

11 Nov 2013

For women in the Nordic Region, part-time work has few (if any!) negative consequences as new regulations reduce the impact on pensions. An enrolled nurse or a preschool teacher in Denmark (or Norway), who works part-time for 10 years still receives 98% - 99% of the maximum pension.

The figures are deduced from a new study published during the conference ‘Part-time in the Nordic region’. On commission from the Swedish Presidency of the NCM (Nordic Council of Ministers), the conference was hosted by NIKK.

The main authors of the study were Professor of Labor Economics, Marianne Sundström, and Alma Wennemo Lanninger, Master student of demography with help from other Nordic countries’ researchers.

In order to focus on issues with family and children, women do more part-time work than men for set periods of time and so, part-time work is generally described as a gender trap. However, women used to be hit in the later life when the pension calculations are underway and compared to full-time employees, they were eligible for less pension pay.

However, the study which was published during the conference is the 1^st ever to look at both women and men in full-time or part-time work from all of the Nordic countries. As different pension systems are applied by different countries, it is difficult to generalize. So, the researchers decided to concentrate on 2 occupations and the long-term consequences of part-time employment for women of a particular age.

There are some set preconditions: all the women had had two children, the period of part-time work should be not more than 10 years and the part-time employment made up 75% of full-time employment. Part-time employment that lasts more than 10 years has larger consequences for the pension payout.

However, the according to the study, no women across all of the countries who were working part-time were paid less than 94% of what a full-time working woman in the same occupation would be availed to from her pension.

The two researchers wrote that they can conclude that in the Norwegian and Danish pension system, part-time work in conjunction with child care is subsidized by other tax payers.