Millennial women are more financially anxious than their male peers, despite having the smallest pay gap of any age group, according to new research from the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association.
The PLSA surveyed 1,001 people aged between 18-35 years and found that women were less financially confident across a series of key financial indicators.
They were less optimistic about career advancement (55% of women compared with 61% of men), and almost twice as likely to report a decrease in their salary in the last six months (14% of women compared with 8% of men).
Graham Vidler, director of external affairs, at PLSA, emphasised the importance of encouraging young people to save.
He said: "Women tend to have smaller pensions than men, but with the advent of automatic enrolment, more people are being encouraged to save than ever before.
"It is vital that the lack of financial confidence among millennials does not discourage them from taking advantage of workplacepensions and falling behind when saving for retirement"
Additional Pan-European research, released earlier in the year, also suggested that women are generally less confident in their financial knowledge so less inclined to take calculated risks.
However, the same research shows that the actual gender financial knowledge gap is smallest among millennials, suggesting theirlack of financial confidence may well be unfounded.
Vidler added that employers must ensure they engage with young people to increase their confidence about retirement choices.
"The gender pay gap is at its lowest in the early stages of a career, so it is arguably the ideal time to get into the savings habit and start thinking about retirement income," he said.
"Millennial women feel pressure to save for the future and using an occupational pension scheme offers a variety of advantages - not only will they benefit from employer contributions and tax relief, but also gain peace of mind for the fact that they are taking proactive steps to building a better standard of living in retirement."
First published 05.05.2017
Lindsay.sharman@wilmingtonplc.com
