TRAPEZ: Transparent pension future – securing women’s economic independence in old age

About the project

The Gender Pay Gap, i.e. the differences between the average wages of women and men, in Austria, is quite high compared to the European average. Consequently, these differences are also reflected in pensions: on average, female old-age pensioners in Austria receive more than 38 percent less pension than men. Among newly awarded old-age pensions, this difference is on average as much as 42 percent. Especially because of high part-time employment, longer career breaks and industry-specific differences in earnings, female pensioners in Austria are at a significantly higher risk of poverty compared to their male counterparts.

The Directorate Women and Equality in the Austrian Federal Chancellery carried out the EU-co-funded project "TRAPEZ – transparent pension future – securing women’s economic independence in old age" (“Transparente Pensionszukunft – Sicherung der ökonomischen Unabhängigkeit von Frauen im Alter”) from 1 February 2019 through 31 September 2020, in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Ministry for Social Affairs, Health and Consumer Protection, the Austrian Ministry for Labour, the Austrian Institute for Economic Research WIFO and with the Working Life Research Centre FORBA. Also, the ABZ*AUSTRIA and SORA participated in TRAPEZ.
TRAPEZ aimed at a thorough analysis of the Austrian Gender Gap in Pensions (GGP), and at highlighting possible options for actions to reduce the GGP and to improve the independent security of women in old age in four subprojects.

Co-financed by the European Union Program for "Rights, Equality and Citizenship".