Women have 34% less saved than men – here's how Sync Savings can help close the gap
Reading time: 8 minutes
If you're a woman in the UK, the financial system is quietly working against you. Not through any single dramatic event – but through a slow, compounding accumulation of structural disadvantages.
The result shows up everywhere: in your current account, in your emergency fund, in your ISA, and – most damagingly – in your pension. Women consistently save less than men across every type of savings, at every age. The gap is widest at retirement, but it starts from the very first payslip.
The good news? With the right tools, saving more doesn't have to feel like a sacrifice. It can be automatic.
Part 1: The numbers – how big is the gap?
Let's start with the headline data. The scale of the gender savings gap is consistently underestimated – and it affects both everyday liquid savings and long-term pensions.
The day-to-day savings gap
The gap doesn't just show up at retirement. It starts much earlier, in the everyday savings habits of working-age women.
34.5%
Less saved overall – women save more than a third less than their male counterparts over a lifetime
54%
Of women save regularly vs 59% of men – millions of women are not saving consistently each month
(FCA Financial Lives Survey)
£2,300
Average liquid savings gap – women hold significantly less in accessible cash savings than men at every age bracket
(FCA, 2024)
That last figure matters more than it might look. Liquid savings – the money held in easy-access accounts, cash ISAs, and current accounts – form the financial cushion that protects against unexpected bills, job loss, or life's many surprises. When that cushion is thinner, women are more likely to take on debt or dip into longer-term savings when life goes wrong.
The long-term pension gap
The everyday shortfall compounds into a devastating retirement gap.
19 years
Extra years of work – women would need to work 19 additional full-time years just to match men's pension pot at retirement
(NOW: Pensions, 2024)
£136k
The average pension wealth gap between men and women at retirement
(NOW: Pensions, 2024)
55%
How much smaller the average woman's pension pot is by her 50s, compared to a man's
(Legal & General)
These figures are consistent across source after source. They tell a single, clear story: the gender savings gap is not marginal. It is life-altering. And it gets worse with age.
Part 2: Why does this happen?
This is not a story about women being worse at saving. It is a story about structural disadvantages that reduce both women's capacity and opportunity to save – at every stage of life.
1. The gender pay gap
The most direct driver. As of 2024, the UK's median gender pay gap is 13.1%. For every £1 a man earns, a woman earns approximately 87p. That gap means lower take-home pay, lower pension contributions, and less left over to put into ISAs or savings accounts each month.
Women are also more likely to be in lower-paid roles overall – around 62% earn below £17,500, compared to 42% of men. Men are twice as likely to be on salaries above £35,000.
2. Part-time work and the auto-enrolment trap
Around 37% of women work part-time, versus 13% of men. Part-time workers face a compounding disadvantage: lower overall pay reduces savings capacity, and many fall below the £10,000 annual earnings threshold that triggers auto-enrolment into a workplace pension.
The result: women make up 79% of workers excluded from auto-enrolment entirely. They receive no employer contributions, no tax relief, and miss years of compound growth – with no payroll mechanism to help them save in any form.
3. The motherhood penalty
Career breaks for childcare represent one of the most significant individual drivers of both the savings gap and the pension gap. NOW: Pensions estimates that the average career break for childcare costs women £39,000 in lost pension savings alone.
But the damage extends well beyond pensions. During a career break, all forms of regular saving typically stop: the direct debit to the ISA pauses, the monthly transfer to the savings account disappears, and emergency funds can be run down to cover household costs on a reduced income. Rebuilding those buffers after a break often takes years.
4. The eldercare gap
Childcare gets most of the attention – but eldercare is a second, often ignored, care penalty. Women are significantly more likely to reduce hours or leave work entirely to care for elderly relatives, and this tends to hit in their 40s and 50s: precisely the years when earnings, savings capacity, and pension contributions should be at their peak.
5. Lower financial confidence
Research from the Money and Pensions Service found that only 41% of women feel they understand enough about pensions to make effective savings decisions, compared to 57% of men. Confidence with investing is even lower, with women significantly less likely to hold stocks and shares ISAs or investment accounts.
Again, this is not about capability – it's about how financial products have historically been designed, explained, and marketed. The financial services industry has been slow to address this, and the gap in participation has real consequences for long-term wealth.
6. Divorce and its financial aftershock
Legal & General research highlights divorce as a compounding factor. Women are more likely to waive rights to a partner's pension during separation, are more likely to see income fall post-divorce, and face the prospect of rebuilding savings from a lower base – often in their 40s or 50s, when retirement is close enough to feel urgent but far enough away to feel abstract.
The common thread running through all of these factors is that they are structural. The gender savings gap is not caused by women choosing to save less. It is caused by a system that consistently makes it harder for women to save as much.
Part 3: How Sync Savings helps
Sync Savings was designed with this reality in mind. We offer two products that address different parts of the savings gap – one that builds your liquid, accessible safety net, and one that builds long-term wealth.
Both are built around the same core principle: make saving so easy, it happens before you even think about it.
1. Automated high-interest Payroll Savings – your liquid safety net
Before thinking about long-term investing, every woman needs a liquid savings cushion. Accessible, flexible, high-interest savings that are there when life doesn't go to plan – a car repair, a gap between jobs, a family emergency.
The problem is that saving consistently from your current account requires a decision every single month. And every month, life provides a reason to delay.
Our Payroll Savings product removes that decision entirely. A fixed amount is deducted directly from your salary – before it reaches your bank account – and deposited into a dedicated high-interest savings account. You adjust your spending around your take-home pay. The saving happens automatically.
This approach – paying yourself first – is the single most evidence-backed savings behaviour identified by behavioural economists. When saving is automatic and frictionless, people save more. Not sometimes. Consistently.
Because your money is held in a high-interest account, it earns a competitive rate from day one – significantly better than most high street current accounts. And because it's payroll-linked, it's easy to start, easy to adjust, and far harder to accidentally spend.
For women navigating part-time hours, variable income, or the aftermath of a career break, this removes the monthly mental load of deciding whether to save. The decision is made once – and then it just works.
This is the emergency fund, the rainy-day pot, the liquid cushion that the data shows women are more likely to lack – built automatically, month by month, from your payslip.
2. Stocks and shares ISA – building long-term wealth
A Payroll Savings account builds your safety net. Once that's in place, the next step is making sure your money is working as hard as possible for the long term.
That's where our stocks and shares ISA comes in.
One of the less-discussed drivers of the gender wealth gap is not just how much women save – it's where they save it. Research consistently shows that women are more likely to hold their savings in cash accounts, while men are more likely to hold investments. Over 10, 20, or 30 years, the difference in returns between cash and a diversified investment portfolio can be enormous.
Cash savings are essential – but they're not wealth-building tools. Over time, inflation erodes the real value of cash. Investments, held through a tax-efficient ISA wrapper, have historically outpaced inflation significantly over longer time horizons.
Our stocks and shares ISA offers:
Tax-free returns. All growth, dividends, and income completely free of UK tax
Generous annual allowance. Up to £20,000 per year investment allowance (2024/25)
Diversified investing. Access to a diversified range of assets – global shares, bonds, funds, ETFs
No lock-in. Full flexibility – you can withdraw your money when you need it
Easy to use. Simple, intuitive management – no jargon, no complexity
Because women typically live longer than men – on average two years more after state pension age – they need more in retirement, not less. A longer retirement requires a larger pot. Investing early, even in small amounts, is one of the most effective ways to build that pot over time.
The savings stack: three layers, one system
Sync Savings is designed to support all three layers of healthy financial wellbeing – not just one:
1️⃣ Layer one: Liquid emergency buffer – accessible, flexible, earning interest → Payroll Savings account
2️⃣ Layer two: Medium-term goals – holiday, home deposit, career break fund → Payroll Savings account (dedicated pot)
3️⃣ Layer three: Long-term wealth – retirement, financial independence → Stocks & shares ISA
Start where you are
You don't need to solve the entire gender savings gap at once. You just need to start.
Set up a Payroll Savings arrangement – even £30 or £50 a month. It earns interest from day one, and it compounds. When your emergency fund is solid, redirect some of that capacity into a stocks and shares ISA. Watch it grow. Increase contributions when you can.
The 19-year pension gap, the £2,300 liquid savings shortfall, the 34.5% wealth gap – none of it happened in a single month. And none of it closes in a single month either. But every automated saving, every invested pound, every month you stay in the market quietly chips away at it.
Sync Savings is here to make every one of those steps as automatic – and as rewarding – as possible.
Sources
NOW: Pensions, gender pensions gap report 2024 | Money.co.uk gender savings gap study | FCA Financial Lives Survey 2024 | Scottish Widows women and retirement report 2023 | Legal & General gender pension gap research | Money and Pensions Service UK adult financial wellbeing survey | ONS gender pay gap in the UK 2024
