8.2 Ensure both men and women participate in retirement plan and/or financial education programs
Content
Description of Best Practices
Fund corporate retirement plan to provide income to retirees
Support financial education regarding saving for retirement
Clearly define employee participation in the plan or education support; shareinformation on how all employees can participate
Periodically audit the plan usage and/or participation in training to determine if there are disparities in how employees’ access and use retirement, inclusive of:
- Collecting sex-disaggregated participation and usage data to understand potential gender differences
- Root cause analysis
Developing corrective action
Offer review of benefits and financial planning training for retirement when approaching retirement age
Challenges of Implementation
Retirement plans may be governmental rather than corporate and are subject to legal constraints
Governments may also set different legal retirement ages for men and women
The ability to save and plan for retirement is intrinsically connected to pay equity, promotion, and other related HR policies[1]
What Success Looks Like
When a corporate retirement plan exists, men and women participate and benefit equally
Male and female employees report satisfaction and increased knowledge regarding financial retirement planning and financial security
Resources and Tools
Report/Study: Women’s Retirement Risk Study (Mass Mutual)
Report/Study: The New Social Contract: Achieving Retirement Equality for Women (Aegon)
Article: How to Fix the Gender Pension Gap (World Economic Forum)
[1] HUMAN RESOURCES (HR) POLICIES. (1) Agreements organizations have with employees about expected mutual behavior. Policies must align with laws and contracts, such as union agreements. (2) System of codified decisions established by an organization to drive administrative personnel functions, salary and benefits, performance management, employee relations and resource planning. (Source: Inc.com, Human Resource Policies)