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Many of us will be familiar with the gender pay gap, but it’s worth reminding yourself of the scale of the ‘wealth gap’, too.
That means the gap between men and women when it comes to their pensions, savings, and investments combined.
One shocking statistic I keep coming back to is this: women must work 19 years longer than men to retire with the same amount.
What is the wealth gap?
Women actually start on a relatively level playing field, but by age 64 have just under half as much in savings, pensions, and investments as men.1
And, I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but this isn't because they are ‘worse with money’. New analysis from Octopus Money shows these gaps develop through systematic barriers that compound across women’s working lives.
The most well-documented is the gender pay gap, which begins as early as the 22-29 age group, immediately limiting women’s ability to save and invest. But in my experience, one of the biggest hidden drivers is a lack of early, accessible financial education. Many women simply haven’t been given the knowledge, language, or confidence to engage with money in the same way and that gap compounds over time.
Many women simply haven’t been given the knowledge, language or confidence to engage with money in the same way and that gap compounds over time
An additional consideration is that women are seven times more likely than men to step out of the workforce for caring responsibilities, with 70% of these breaks falling between 35 and 54, precisely when earnings and pension contributions should be at their peak.2
One employee who took part in the Octopus Money study described how she had simply never thought about her pension during the years she took out of work to raise her children.
Meanwhile, her husband had been building his pot through salary sacrifice. At 45, she is now directing vast sums, trying to catch up while he doesn’t need to. I imagine many of you see this playing out in your own teams.
From 55, menopause becomes a further factor, with 45% of women saying symptoms negatively affect their work. Female financial confidence falls to 35% at this stage, while male confidence rises to 58%.
How HR can help close the gap
There are encouraging signs of change.
In her latest book, Inheritocracy, economist Dr Eliza Filby argues that women are set to become wealthier than men in the coming decades; they are increasingly engaged investors and are more often now the breadwinner. But the gap is still enormous, and we can't afford to wait for the tide to turn on its own.
Here's what your teams can do now.
1. Look at your own data first
You can't address a gap you haven't measured. Pull together a picture of how men and women in your organisation compare across pension participation and contribution rates, uptake of financial wellbeing benefits, flexible and caregiving arrangements, and access to financial advice. At POWWR, this kind of honest internal audit was what convinced us that closing the gender wealth gap needed to be a genuine leadership priority, not just something sitting in an HR policy document.
2. Stop designing benefits for a career most women don't have
The default financial benefit is built for someone who joins a company at 22, works full-time without interruption, and retires at 65. That's not most women's experience. The interventions that make a real difference are timed to the moments of greatest risk: starting a family, taking a career break, returning from maternity leave, navigating midlife.
At POWWR, two colleagues approaching maternity leave were supported by personalised financial planning. One used it to model what returning full-time versus part-time would mean for her long-term finances. That conversation shaped the decision she made at a moment when many women are feeling overwhelmed and under-supported. And it isn't just women who benefit from these conversations; one male colleague used his planning session to work out whether his family could afford nursery fees when his wife returned from maternity leave with a second child.
