Gender Disparity in CPF savings

MEN generally have healthier CPF balances than women across all age groups and the gap rises to 1.69 times just before retirement (aged 50-54) to more than twice for the oldest age group (aged 60+), according to the 2004 AWARE-TSAO Foundation report on Women and Income Security in an ageing Singapore population.

The large gender disparity in CPF balance shows that there is less income security for old age and retirement among older women than older men.

More hard facts......

Average CPF Balances, By Sex and Age Group (50+)

The reasons for this disparity are social-attitudinal, economic and gender-related.

Social-attitudinal: in Singapore as in most Asian societies, women commonly sacrifice their career and earning power for their families. During the family formation stage, they move from full-time paid work to full-time unpaid work as family caregivers and homemakers. As CPF is employment-based, women without formal employment and continuous work history will have negligible CPF savings as a form of old age social security.

Economic: Women generally have shorter work histories than men because of their early exit from the labour force to raise families. If they do work, work is often in the informal sector which does not pay well, and do not contribute CPF. This explains why male CPF membership exceeds female CPF membership by 1.2 times (for ages 40-44) to 1.1 times (for ages 50-54, 55-59).

Gender-related: CPF balances continue to widen between men and women despite rising educational levels. Whatever their background, women generally continue to earn lower incomes than men which result in lower CPF savings.

The AWARE-TSAO Foundation study shows that older women have the least income security, and women aged 60 and above are the most vulnerable as they have accumulated the least CPF savings during a lifetime of unpaid care giving and homemaking, as well as irregular work histories.