Statutory pension insurance continues to be the main source of livelihood security in old age for dependent employees. Despite a variety of reform efforts aimed at improving old-age security for women, the average old-age pension paid to women of about 500 euros is only half that paid to men. Since pension insurance law no longer contains any regulations that are directly linked to gender, the subject of this study is so-called indirect discrimination. Both Article 3 (3) of the Basic Law and Directive 79/7/EEC contain a prohibition of indirect discrimination on the basis of sex. The author examines the question of whether this form of statutory pension insurance violates the aforementioned prohibitions. The work is primarily aimed at constitutional and social law experts. Since it also contains an overview of the basic concept of pension insurance as well as its implications with regard to women’s old-age security, it is also of some interest to social scientists. It was produced as part of the Integration Research Graduate Program at the Europa-Kolleg Hamburg.
