Polish women don’t overwork themselves. As the last in the European Union

The pension system in Poland assumes that men have the right to end their professional activity at the age of 65, and women five years earlier. An attempt to change this order of things in 2012 ended with Donald Tusk’s government losing power. PiS gained significantly in 2017 because it restored the old order. In fact, everyone lost out on it.

There are no longer any countries in the European Union where the general statutory retirement age for women is lower than in Poland. Only Russian women retire at the age of 57, and only Belarusian women retire at the age of 58. Is this a standard that should be imitated because both countries are getting richer faster than Poland? It is known that it is not, and yet raising the retirement age of Polish women still raises strong objections, even though it is in their interest.

Home, children, elderly parents. Women are taking on more than just a full-time job

A lower retirement age for women was introduced in Poland during the Polish People’s Republic. In 1954 to be precise. It was an idea strongly related to the traditional division of roles in the family. It was then assumed that a woman had a double job – working professionally and also taking care of the house and raising children.

Women are much more likely to take on the burden of caring for children or dependent family members. Early retirement is treated as a form of appreciation for this unpaid work. But where does it end for women?

This is how it is in the new pension system: shorter working time, and therefore smaller pension capital and receiving benefits ZUS longer due to the longer average life expectancy of women, resulting in women’s pensions often being approximately 30 percent lower. lower than men’s benefits. ZUS divides the capital accumulated during professional activity in an individual account by the number of months of life that a woman statistically has ahead of her. And she has more of them than men. It’s not magic, just basic mathematics.

One more factor cannot be forgotten – the wage gap, which is doing great in Poland. Women systematically earn less than men in the same positions. Officially and statistically: 4 percent. less. Unofficially – even 7-8 percent. less month after month, their entire professional life is transferred to their account. And therefore also to the ZUS account.

Loooong hours at work. A higher retirement age is strongly opposed

There are currently 879.5 thousand retired people in Poland. retirees, which constitutes only 13.7 percent. full pension pot. Women constitute the vast majority of this group – 58.2%. There is really no coincidence that women are more likely to supplement their pensions – because they have to.

But here too the mathematics is ruthless. It turns out that when you compare the benefits of working longer or earning extra money in retirement, the first idea is better. According to ZUS, delaying the decision to retire even for a year permanently (!) increases the amount of the pension by about 8%. And this amount stays with the person. What you can earn for benefits will quickly disappear from your household budget when your health no longer allows you to earn extra money.

Experts and economists agree – first of all, the retirement age in Poland should be equalized to 65 years of age, and in the next step – it should be raised for everyone. The Danes, Dutch and Germans understand this necessity, but not Poles. And even at the price of a lower benefit. What is the reason? Fatigue, poor health and overwork. Because the fact that Poles are among the European nations that stay at work for long periods of time does not change.

The average weekly working time in Poland is 38 hours. Full time – 40 hours. Meanwhile, the European average is approximately 33-34 hours weekly. And that makes a difference.