How many men and how many women receive the minimum pension?

The minimum pension in 2017 was 637.7 euros. According to data from the Spanish Ministry of Labour and Social Security, the number of men receiving the minimum pension in the Basque Country last year was 16,462 (6.14%), while the number of women was 50,168 (17.96%). Taking data from the same source of information in hand, the number of men receiving the minimum pension in Navarre was 7,537 (11.16%), while the number of women was 18,118 (27.25%).

The pension gap in the Basque Country, one of the highest in Spain

eitb.eus published in the news in January 2017, the UGT union provided data from the research carried out and states that women received an average of 44.84% less in the Basque Country. After Asturias (50.46%), it was the autonomous community with the greatest gap. According to the same source, in the Basque Country, 108,140 women and 215,151 men received a retirement pension. Women received an average of 837.84 euros, while men received 1,518.85 euros. Only 2,819 women were able to receive the maximum retirement pension, although 17,637 men received it.

The majority of Income Guarantee Income recipients are women over 65 years of age.

Many retirees are forced to turn to the DSBE to supplement the meager pensions they receive. According to data from this February of the Professional, the majority of those who receive the Income Guarantee Income are women over 65 years of age: 8.208. Among both men and women, they are significantly the largest group, double the following group (women aged 40-44: 4.365). As a result of this number of 65-year-old women, 65-year-olds make up the largest group of people receiving DSBE: 10,695 (18.1%), of which 8 out of 10 are women.

Of the total number of women receiving DSBE, 24.1% are over 65 years of age, a significantly larger group. In contrast, among men receiving DSBE, those over 65 years of age are 9.9%, one of the smallest groups.

Reading the Feminist Movement

The Basque Country Feminist Movement, which called for a strike at the M8, is calling for a demonstration in Bilbao on 17 March for decent pensions. The current situation of women pensioners has been explained as follows: "Those who have had the opportunity to have their own pensions receive very low benefits and are not even addressed to be sufficient to meet the minimum needs. Many others have not had the opportunity to obtain their own pension despite having worked all their lives, including in the clandestine economy, in households, in caregiving. And we cannot forget the women who receive pensions of widows of misery, who find it almost impossible to reach the end of the month."