Pensions at a Glance 2025

Gross pension entitlements for couples

Key results

Half of OECD countries provide some support for non-working partners in a couple. An average‑wage full-career single‑earner couple receives total benefits for both people of 58.7% of the average wage compared with 52.0% for single male earners. However, this is significantly lower than what these two people (man with full career, woman having never worked) will get in total if they were single, or 68.1% of gross average wage as the non-worker has full entitlement to all residence‑based basic pensions and safety nets. When both partners are full‑career average earners, total mandatory pensions are lower than those for two single individuals in six countries, Australia, Denmark, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

There are two ways in which partnership status affects pension entitlements. First, some systems offer “derived” rights: these are benefits for the couple that derive from the working experience and contributions of one spouse. Secondly, some first-tier benefits are calculated based on family status, assessed using the couple as a “pension unit” rather than treating everyone separately.

Table 5.1 shows calculations of pension entitlements for four different family types. In the first three, total gross earnings are held constant at 100% of the economy-wide individual average. A single man with these earnings is compared with a single‑earner couple (male earner). These are then further compared to the pension entitlements of a single man combined with a single woman who never worked. The final case shows a couple consisting of two earners, each with 100% of average earnings, only showing values if the pension differs from that of two singles, each with average earnings.

There is significant variation between countries in terms of the policy stance adopted for non-workers within a couple. In some countries, benefits are higher for couples than for single people because of basic schemes that pay a higher rate to a couple than to a single person (although less than the entitlement of two single people) as in the Netherlands, for example. In Ireland there are spousal benefits in the basic pension for partners in a couple who do not earn a full basic pension entitlement in their own right.

In Korea and the United States, there are spousal benefits in the public, earnings-related schemes. Japan covers periods of being a non-working spouse for the contribution-based basic pensions and Belgium applies higher accrual rates for couples in contributory pensions. Again, these higher benefits are paid to couples where one partner has not earned a large entitlement in his or her own right. Additionally, there are several countries with either residence‑based basic pensions or means‑tested targeted benefits that are provided on an individual basis and so are paid to the non-working partner in the couple.

On average for couples in which there is a male average earner and a non-working partner, the pension benefit is 58.7% of average earnings, at the normal retirement age, compared to 52.0% for a single male worker at average earnings. Overall, just under half of OECD countries provide higher total benefits for one‑earner couples than for single earners, at the average wage. The largest difference is found in Norway where benefits for single‑earner couples are 23 percentage points (p.p.) higher than for single earners. Denmark, Iceland, Ireland and New Zealand are all at 20 p.p. or above. In Denmark, Iceland, Ireland and Norway, the non-working partner has full entitlement to the means‑tested targeted pensions, as is also the case in Finland and Sweden, and, in addition in Denmark, to the flat‑rate residence‑based basic pension. In New Zealand both partners are entitled to the residence‑based basic pension at the couple rate (76% of the individual rate for each partner). Lithuania has a lower replacement rate as the living alone supplement is withdrawn. Ireland also has a living alone allowance that is withdrawn but it is more than covered by the means-tested pension.

Given an equivalence scale of square root of 2 for a couple in order to account for economies of scale in living costs (Chapter 7), the single‑earner couple benefit level of 58.7% of average earnings provides an equivalent, at the individual level, of 41.5%, so 10 p.p. lower than for single men, reflecting the fact that the second person has not received any labour income. By comparison two single individuals following the same career paths, i.e. a man with a full career at average earnings and a woman who has never worked, would have a combined benefit of 68.1% of average wage, 16 p.p. higher than what is received by a single male full career earner. This is due to the single female having full entitlement to residence‑based basic pensions and safety nets in her own right.

For couples with both earning the average wage, results are only shown for those cases that would give a different pension entitlement than for two single individuals. The only countries with couple specific rules in that case are Australia, Denmark, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands and New Zealand. In New Zealand, total pension amounts are based on people’s living situation, rather than their earnings history. However, the residence‑based basic component is paid at a lower level for each individual in a couple than if they were single. This is also the case in Australia for the safety-net benefit (Age Pension) and in the Netherlands. In Denmark the rate of withdrawal of the means-tested component is higher for couples than for single individuals. In Ireland and Lithuania, the aforementioned living alone allowances are lost for the couple compared to two single individuals.

Definition and measurement

The old-age pension entitlement measures how effectively a pension system provides a retirement income to replace earnings, the main source of income before retirement. The gross entitlement is defined as gross pension divided by gross pre‑retirement earnings.

For the couple analysis, a male and female partner of the same age are assumed to enable easier comparison with the single‑earner scenario. For the two‑earner couple, both are assumed to retire at the earliest age at which no penalty will apply to their benefits, with the female pensioner then having their benefits indexed until reaching the male retirement age for those countries with lower female retirement age.

Table 5.1. Gross pension entitlements by household composition: singles versus couples, percentage of average earnings

	Male full-career average earner				Two‑earner couple, each with full-career average earnings, if different from two single average earners
	Single (female where different)		Plus female non-working partner, if different from single male case	Plus single female who has never worked
Australia	40.8	(38.5)	53.8	64.4	60.7
Austria	74.1			96.9
Belgium	43.5		54.0	70.6
Canada	37.1		42.8	51.3
Chile	49.7	(49.6)	61.9	61.9
Colombia	74.8			83.7
Costa Rica	65.7	(62.2)		79.1
Czechia	44.2		63.4	50.3
Denmark	72.7		94.3	107.9	136.7
Estonia	29.3		42.7	42.7
Finland	57.8		70.3	70.3
France	56.6			72.5
Germany	42.1			55.0
Greece	79.6			90.6
Hungary	51.9	(48.4)		55.4
Iceland	43.9		63.8	68.1
Ireland	24.3		44.0	45.8	45.0
Israel	42.8	(36.5)	47.4	55.4
Italy	70.6			81.4
Japan	36.5		50.7	53.7
Korea	33.4		35.6	37.6
Latvia	38.7			49.6
Lithuania	17.4		16.4	22.8	32.9
Luxembourg	75.6			104.8
Mexico	69.6		80.1	80.1
Netherlands	74.7		85.0	103.3	131.1
New Zealand	39.5		60.0	78.9	60.0
Norway	46.1		69.1	69.1
Poland	28.6	(22.4)		43.4
Portugal	72.4			81.8
Slovak Republic	58.0			67.6
Slovenia	45.9			61.5
Spain	80.4			103.3
Sweden	63.7		76.6	78.0
Switzerland	42.4			58.7
Türkiye	69.1	(66.4)		73.8
United Kingdom	44.7			66.8
United States	39.7		59.5	48.8
OECD	52.0	(51.4)	58.7	68.1	101.6

Note: Values are only shown for single‑earner couples where the pension received differs from that of a single male earner. Values are only shown for couples with average earnings when they differ from the rates that would apply to a single man and single woman combined.

Reading note: A male average earner in Belgium has a gross replacement rate of 43.5% after a full career (first two columns). If in a couple with a non-working partner, total pensions increase to 54.0% of the gross average wage (third column) as the annual accrual rate used for the calculation of the DB component increases from 1.33% to 1.67%. For the two single individuals (fourth column), the non-worker is entitled to the safety-net benefit (equal to 27.2% of average earnings) in her own right giving a total pension of 70.6% of the gross average wage (43.5% + 27.2%). There is no value recorded for Belgium in the two‑earner couple case (last column) as being part of a couple gives exactly the same total pensions as for two single earners (in total 87.0% of the average wage).

Source: OECD pension models.

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