MALE NORMS AND FEMALE ADJUSTMENTS: THE INFLUENCE OF CARE CREDITS ON GENDER PENSION GAPS IN FRANCE AND GERMANY

ABSTRACT

European pension systems are in the process of change. A general development is the retrenchment of public schemes. In combination with the aim of individualizing pension entitlements, it is crucial that the pension situation of women, and of mothers in particular, be improved. Some European countries attempt to reduce the gender pension gaps with child care credits. This paper takes a closer look at the French and German systems. Can adjustments to the pension norm, in terms of different allowances for child care as introduced in both countries, balance gender pension gaps? Following the logic of the individual factors, the duration of insurance and the level of paid contributions, the main factors are analysed to evaluate the efficiency of care credits. Within the complexity of pension-related factors, adjustments to the originally male pension norms have very ambiguous effects, and they are insufficient to de-gender pension gaps.

Keywords:

• Care credits
• France
• gender
• Germany
• pension norms

Notes

¹Whether other forms of care, such as geriatric care, are pension valuated are currently being discussed (AVID 1996).

²The latest statistics on care facilities in Germany, as at 31.12.2002, are less clearly differentiated but comparable: in total, there are 85 places for crèches for every 1,000 children up to the age of three. For every 100 children aged three to six there are 38.2 full-time places, including lunch facilities (Statistisches Bundesamt 2006).

³Generally speaking, the opening times of care facilities are insufficiently compatible with professional activities.

⁴For the sake of clarity, the word former is not in the ongoing text.

⁵Other criticism states that it is the long employment interruption of women before having children that determines the low pensions of women: interruptions for unpaid housework of German women without children used to be about 46% in the west and 10% in the east (AVID 1996). These data reflect differences in practiced gender roles.

⁶The currency is given in DM because the AVID report dates from 1996. The next AVID report is expected to be published in 2007. The ‘exchange rate’ is about €1:DM 2.

⁷See for instance IGM 2001: 8. The argument that unisex-life tables are too expensive because of the longer life-expectancy of women is compensated for another: the expensive widows pension derived from men's contributions.

⁸The net pension level is calculated on the basis of the relation of ‘corner-pension’ (Eckrentner) and standard-pension to the actual level of average income.

⁹See footnote 5.

¹⁰One might expect that this development would lead to the realization that the pension norm, which requires fulltime and whole life labour market participation, has to be changed in general, i.e., also for men. In contrast, the changes that have been introduced even tighten the norm (increasing number of trimesters in France, raising retirement age and decreasing education credits in Germany).

¹¹According to us, this case study and this general conclusion provides the conditions for realizing specific scenario studies.