Differences in gender pension gaps in public and private pensions in West Germany: An analysis sensitive to interdependencies across the life course

Gender pension gaps (GPG) surpass gender wage gaps in most European countries. Research has largely relied on single-factor, employment-centred explanations, and we know less about how GPGs emerge from an interdependent life-course perspective. This study contributes to research on gender pension gaps and cumulative (dis)advantage across the life course by applying a life-course-sensitive decomposition to linked survey–register data for Germany (SHARE-RV), comparing gender gaps in public and private pensions based on common work–family life courses, including relative earning positions, relevant due to pension privatisation in Europe. It considers the interdependencies of employment, family life and earnings over the life course. GPGs occur because privileged life courses yielding high pensions are almost exclusively accessible to fathers, while female-typical life-course patterns characterised by care work and part-time employment yield low pensions. Gendered access to high-income careers drives the GPG in private pensions more strongly than in public pensions, underscoring the future risk of high GPGs given persistent gender wage inequalities and pension privatisation in Germany.