Almost six in every ten workers (59.8%) had pension coverage in Quarter 3 2019, an increase of just over three percentage points on the same period in 2018. This includes occupational pension provision from current and previous employments, as well as personal pension coverage where payments have been deferred for a while or are currently being drawn down. The State Pension is excluded for the purposes of this survey. When the scope is narrowed for Quarter 3 2019 to only occupational pension coverage from current employment and personal pension in current contribution (as in Quarter 4 2015), supplementary pension coverage for workers aged 20 to 69 years is 50.4%, compared with 47.1% in Quarter 3 2018. See Table 2.1.
Supplementary pension coverage of males was marginally higher than for females, 60.7% had supplementary pension coverage compared with 58.7% of females. See Table 2.1.
Pension coverage has increased for all age groups, when compared to the third quarter of 2018, but pension coverage in 2019 has followed the same trend as in 2018 where pension coverage was lowest among younger workers. Nearly one fifth (19.4%) of workers in the 20 to 24 years age group had pension coverage, while nearly half (44.8%) of workers in the 25 to 34 years age cohort had supplementary pension coverage in Quarter 3 2019.
Supplementary pension coverage increases with age. Over two thirds (67.2%) of workers aged 35 to 44 years have pension coverage, while seven in every ten persons in employment have a pension in the combined age group 45 to 69 years – of persons in employment in the 45 to 54 years age group, 71.8% of workers have pension coverage, compared with 69.4% of workers in the 55 to 69 years age cohort. See Table 2.1.
Just over four in every ten (40.1%) of non-Irish national workers had supplementary pension coverage compared with 63% of Irish national workers.
Just over half (51%) of workers who are self employed and/or assisting relative have supplementary pension coverage compared with over six in every ten (61.4%) of employees.
Almost two thirds (65.3%) of full-time workers have pension coverage, compared with just 38.1% of part-time workers. See Table 2.1.
The NACE economic sectors with the highest pension coverage in Quarter 3 2019 were Public administration and defence; compulsory social security (93%), followed by Financial, insurance and real estate activities (85.7%) and Education (83.8%). See Table 2.2.
Analysis of pension coverage by broad occupational groups shows that workers whose occupation was classified as Professionals had the highest pension coverage rate (84%), followed by Managers, directors and senior officials (71.7%) and Associate professional and technical (69.3%). See Table 2.2 and Figure 2.1.
| Managers, directors and senior officials | Professionals | Associate professional and technical | Administrative and secretarial | Skilled trades | Caring, leisure and other services | Sales and customer service | Process, plant and machine operatives | Elementary | |
| Pension Coverage 2019 | 71.7 | 84 | 69.3 | 65.4 | 45.3 | 43 | 31.2 | 54.4 | 27.5 |
Go to next chapter:Type of Pension Coverage
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