The Gender Wealth Gap and the Role of Private Pension Wealth in Great Britain

Research on gender wealth gaps is hampered by the fact that most surveys gather information on wealth at the household or family level rather than for individuals. It is also limited in coverage, often not including pension wealth. Here we exploit the rich data on individual wealth including pension wealth obtained by the British Wealth and Assets Survey (WAS) to assess the gender wealth gap in Great Britain between 2006-08 and 2018-20, with a particular focus on the prominent role of private pension wealth. We find that in 2018-20 mean wealth for women was 29.5% lower than for men when pension wealth was included versus only 12.6% lower when it was not. Decomposition analysis shows that differences between men's and women's observed socioeconomic characteristics account for about 45% of the private pension wealth gap, with differences in labour market experiences (labour income, career gaps and part-time jobs) playing a key role. We also find an increase in the gender pension gap over time that is associated with the increasing proportion of pension wealth in Defined Contribution rather than Defined Benefit schemes. Financial and business wealth is also an important contributor to the overall wealth gap, and like pension wealth its contribution increases towards the top of the distribution.