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Giordano Ciampini/The Canadian Press
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Women continue to earn less than men, but they’re well ahead in one measure of financial well-being. |
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A recent report from Statistics Canada says that 30 per cent of women in the workforce were covered by a defined benefit pension plan in 2022, compared to 21.5 per cent of men. These numbers document a big reversal from 1981, when 47.8 per cent of male workers and 33 per cent of women had DB plans. |
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Defined benefit pensions give retirees fixed lifelong monthly payments based on salary and years of service. Some DB plans offer a degree of inflation indexing, while others do not. But all DB plans represent a premium form of retirement income that is not subject to financial market drama. |
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Other types of pensions include the defined contribution plan and the group registered retirement savings plan. While these savings programs have some value, especially when employers contribute alongside their workers, the amount of income they generate in retirement depends on stock and bond market returns and your own investing decisions. |
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The long retreat of DB coverage results from declines in unionization and shifts in the job market to industries where pensions are uncommon, Statistics Canada said. For women, this trend was offset by a move into occupations with a higher degree of pension coverage. Examples include education, health care and public administration. |
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The rise of multi-employer pension plans in recent years has allowed some companies to add DB pensions for their workers in an affordable way. But overall, DB plans have become a lot harder to find in the workplace, particularly for men. Job-seekers, there may not be a more precious workplace benefit right now than a DB plan. |
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As for the gender wage gap, the Statistics Canada report said women aged 25 to 54 with full-time jobs earned 90 cents for every $1 received by men as of May 2024. That’s up from 75 cents in 1981, with most of the improvement coming from 1981 to 2004. |
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The report says recent studies have shown that having children contributes significantly to widening the gender wage gap as men and women grow older. Coming up: A look at the gender wealth gap. |
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| How to fail as an investor
The conclusion of this article about long-term stock market returns is that the only sure way to ensure you fail as an investor is not to invest at all. Despite constant volatility, stock market returns over the long term have been strong. | | |
| Invest or pay down your credit card?
A nicely written profile of one of the best communicators out there in the personal finance world, Bruce Sellery, CEO of the credit counselling agency Credit Canada. Mr. Sellery believes financial advisers should talk to clients about debt as well as investing. He says he’s “evangelical” about pay down high interest debt before investing. | | |
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AI can help you get out of debtIntroducing Mariposa, an AI-powered tool that provides a personalized debt assessment and suggests debt management options. Brought to you by the afore-mentioned Credit Canada, which is a non-profit agency. | | |
| Home affordability gains are a mirage
The author of this blog posts deconstructs arguments that housing is getting more affordable as a result of falling or stagnant prices and mortgage rates that are lower than they’ve been in the past couple of years. |
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