The numbers from the 2025 INPS report show a gender gap that is still very wide. Lower wages, discontinuous and part-time careers have an impact: these are the sectors and areas where the distance is greatest
How much less does a retired woman earn than a man? A third. The answer comes from the INPS social report. The figure is the sum of years of salary differences, more fragmented careers and greater use of part-time work. Therefore, for the same number of years worked, a woman risks finding herself with a much lower pension than that of a male colleague.
The pension gap: how much less retired women earn
In 2025 the average amount of social security pensions (disability, old age and survivors) was 1,876.1 euros gross per month. But this is the average. If we look at the gender difference, men received an average of 2,260.6 euros per month compared to 1,491.7 euros for women. We’re talking about a difference of 34%. The gap is not uniform throughout Italy nor in all social security systems. For old-age pensions of private employees, for example, the gap widens further, reaching almost 45%. Even in the public sector the difference remains marked: in the management of public employees the average allowance is 1,940.4 euros for women compared to 2,705.9 euros for men (the overall average is 2,323.2 euros).
Looking at the geographical situation there are two extremes: the women who retire later are thoseUmbria (average age 67 years), while the men who leave work first are those of Trentino-Alto Adige (62.3 years) and of Lombardy (63.1 years).
Why women retire with less money: salary is the first cause
The pension gap arises in the years in which women work, from wages received. According to the INPS report, in 2024 (the last year for which data is available) the average daily wage in the private sector was 111.1 euros per day for men and 82.6 euros per day for women. So a difference of over 25% which obviously translates into fewer social security contributions and ultimately lower pensions. And what has an impact is not only the different salary treatment for the same role, but also that women in general have roles with lower qualifications, make less progress and resort much more often to part timewhich lowers the average daily wage even with the same skills.
And it doesn’t seem to count the age of leaving work. Women retire at old age or early, on average, at 65.4 yearswhile the men go out to 64.1 years. So women work more, but with lower wages: a combination that weighs doubly on the wallet.
The wage gap between men and women: the sectors where it weighs most
The gender pay gap is more marked in some sectors than others and this then has repercussions on pensions. In private the sector where the gap is widest (40.1%) is real estate, followed by credit (31.6%) and trade (23.6%). In the public the gap is on average smaller than in the private sector: the difference reaches 20.5%, reducing to 18.4% in the sector with the highest salaries, universities and research. Whether private or public, whether in the most qualified and best paid sectors, the gender gap does not disappear, it only reduces.
