#AFLOAT IN FRANCE FULL#

“Pensions amplify the inequality of salaries,” wrote researcher Christiane Marty, who said it was “hogwash” to present the law as fair to women in a Le Monde editorial. A recent poll by Elabe found that 74% oppose the pension law compared with 67% of men. Ministers argued other measures in the bill were specifically aimed at helping women, including raising the minimum pension to €1,200, but women were not convinced. The sexual inequality inherent in the law was highlighted in January when the government presented the bill along with an accompanying 112-page report on its aims and effects that showed women would have to postpone their retirement by up to nine months longer than men.įranck Riester, the parliamentary relations minister, admitted the reform would penalise women “a little”. Women whose careers and contributions are interrupted by having and raising children and whose salaries are already 22% lower than male colleagues’, according to a 2022 report by the statistics agency Insee, and pensions about 40% lower, say they are particularly punished.Ī Pensions Policy Council report the same year found poverty among the over-65s living alone had risen steadily since 2016 and was particularly high among women, who receive an average of €967 (£852) per month net compared with €1,617 (£1426) for men.

#AFLOAT IN FRANCE FULL#

The new law will not mean all workers packing up at 64, as it will require 43 years of contributions for a full pension. In France, the contributions made by those currently in work pay for the pensions of the retired. Macron’s centrist government insists the pensions overhaul is necessary to keep the system financially afloat as the population ages and lives longer. We have to work even longer to make up for that to get a full pension, and because our salaries are lower our pensions are lower.” Even these days many women stop work to look after our children, which means we have interrupted careers and are often missing five or six years of contributions. “Putting the retirement age up to 64 is doubly penalising for us. Pierrette Gobinot, 49, who is retraining as an auxiliary nurse, agreed. ‘If you’re a woman in France you should be out on the streets protesting,’ she says. Artist Fabienne Oudart, 56, at Thursday’s protest in central Paris.

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