The Relationships Between the Satisfaction with Financial Situation and The Objective Factors Influencing the Economic Security in Old Age – Gender Gap Perspective

In the EU, there is an academic and policy debate on the elimination of inequalities on the gender gap in the labour market and pensions (pay and pension gender gap).

On the other hand, studies on life satisfaction indicate that “women reported higher levels of life satisfaction than men across all income, education, and employment groups” (Joshanloo & Jovanović, 2020). An important element of life satisfaction is satisfaction with the financial situation as corresponding to the provision of basic needs.

The aim of this study is to identify gender gaps in satisfaction with financial situation and to identify and examine the relationship between selected objective determinants of economic security and one of the (semi)subjective variables that can be used as a measure of the level of economic security – satisfaction with financial situation.

The study uses mainly Eurostat data on European countries and the results of 2 rankings of pension systems (Allianz and Mercer Global index).

Major conclusions:

The analysis of the data shows that in most European countries, women perceive their satisfaction with financial situation lower than men, so it is worth looking for reasons for this phenomena.

The study shows a positive correlation between satisfaction with financial situation and assessment of the pension system according to the Mercer Global Pension index, duration of working life, length of healthy life years, and negative with limitations in usual activities due to health problem. These variables are therefore worth paying more attention to in further research in this area.