FEWER than 10% of South Africans retire with enough savings to maintain a comfortable standard of living. But new insights from Discovery Corporate and Employee Benefits highlight a deeper disparity: South African women retire with 21% less in retirement assets than men.
This data, released in July 2025, is based on a detailed analysis of contribution behaviour, earnings, fund choices and family dynamics across Discovery’s umbrella funds.
“With August being National Women’s Month, we examined how women are faring in retirement,” says Nonku Pitje, CEO of Discovery Corporate and Employee Benefits. “While women are actively saving for retirement, the system still works against them.” Pitje notes that although unequal pay contributes to the gap, the issue is more complex: “Women face a lifetime of disproportionate financial pressures. Retirement systems often don’t reflect their lived realities, which makes them more financially vulnerable in retirement.”
Key findings:
Women have 21% less in pension and provident fund balances compared to men.
They earn 76 cents for every R1 men earn – a 24% gender pay gap. Among older women, the gap widens to 39%, likely due to fewer promotion opportunities.
Caregiving responsibilities skew careers. Stats SA’s 2021 Household Survey shows that 43.4% of children live only with their mothers, versus 3.9% with their fathers. This places a tenfold financial burden on women, who often need flexible work arrangements or higher net pay.
Women are 1.3 times more likely to withdraw from their retirement savings under the new two-pot system, and 80% more likely to use the funds for school fees.
They live longer. A healthy 65-year-old woman is expected to outlive a man of the same age by two years, which stretches retirement savings over a longer period.
From age 55, women are 25% more likely to invest conservatively, potentially limiting investment growth during critical pre-retirement years.
Despite these challenges, the data also shows that women are 1.2 times more likely to contribute above their employer’s default rate, indicating a strong commitment to long-term financial planning.
However, Pitje warns that these dynamics accumulate over time: “By retirement, women have saved less, live longer, and are more likely to support family members across multiple generations. The gender pay gap is just the starting point – we’re looking at deeply systemic issues.”
Rethinking retirement benefits
With most South Africans depending on employer-sponsored retirement funds, employers are uniquely positioned to drive change.
“Retirement benefits are still designed as if one size fits all,” says Pitje. “Employers can be powerful agents of equity by redesigning benefits not just for compliance, but for impact.”
She outlines three priorities for more inclusive benefits:
Stronger financial education and tools – Equip employees with simple, accessible information about their retirement status and how to improve it.
Flexible contribution models – Reflect real-life events like career breaks, caregiving, and part-time work. Discovery data shows that engaged members aware of their incentives preserve their assets at significantly higher rates – nearly 50%, compared to an industry average of 10%–20%.
Support for financial stress – Implement structures that help employees manage debt and the burdens of the “sandwich generation”, who support both children and aging parents.
“Employers influence how people save and how confident they feel about their financial futures,” says Pitje. “As an industry, we need to evolve the design of benefits. Even small structural changes – from contribution flexibility to education – can help close the gender retirement gap.”
