SPAIN'S government is in the process of reviewing 8,500 State pensions after the Constitutional Court scrapped calculation methods for part-time workers on the grounds that this discriminated against women.
From Monday this week, all days worked will be considered full days whether they are or not. Until recently, State pensions were calculated on a pro-rata basis for part-timers - for example, a person who worked 20 hours a week instead of the standard 40 would, after 30 years, have only been considered to have 'paid into the system' for 15 years.
This has often meant workers retiring on a very low pension, far below the average for their region - which is typically generous compared with other EU member States - or would not be able to afford to retire at all.
The Constitutional Court considered that part-time workers were being doubly penalised, since their earnings were, by default, lower in any case in line with their reduced hours, which means a smaller sum in their pension pot.
And as 63% of part-time workers who reached State pension age last year were female and only 37% male, the Court considers that this 'double penalty' is discrimination against women.
Society in general considered the system outdated, since the last full pension calculation reform was 21 years ago and continued to respond to a demographic where pensioners would be on their first marriage and it was automatically considered the husband's duty to support the wife.
Around 8,500 new applications for pension payment are under scrutiny, and at least 2,200 are expected to increase by about 4%.
The rest will not increase for various reasons - some 3,500 are already at the 100% mark, another 800 are for part-time workers who had been working at an average of 67% of full-time hours, meaning they would automatically be considered full-timers for pension purposes anyway, and a further 2,000 receive other types of benefits in addition, which would be absorbed by the increase.
