London, 10 March 2026: Public sector workers remain ahead on participation and contributions in workplace pensions; while men continue to be more likely to contribute through work schemes than women, according to official figures published today by the Office for National Statistics.
According to the ONS, the proportion of workers in workplace pension schemes held steady at around 8 in ten (82%) in 2024 and at roughly the same level since 2019, when growth in participation began to stabilise following seven years of increases, after the introduction of auto-enrolment in 2012.
The proportion of workers paying into private sector schemes remains lower overall and with far lower employer contributions, despite defined contribution pensions continuing to make up a growing proportion of the overall workplace pensions mix (up from 36% in 2021 to 40% in 2024, while defined benefit was down from 36% to 24% of jobs over the same period).
Despite an encouraging rise between 2023 and 2024, which indicates an overall shift towards prioritising pensions, there remains a gender gap in participation in the private sector: with 76% of women paying into a workplace scheme (up from 72% in 2023) compared with 81% of men (up from 78% in 2023). In the public sector, 90% of men and women contribute.
Employer contributions in the public sector are far higher, at a median level of 27% for men and 26% for women, compared with 6% for men and 5% for women in the private sector.
Becky O’Connor, Head of Pensions at PensionBee, said: “There are some encouraging signs in the latest data that workers are prioritising pension participation.
“However, outcomes for a decent retirement continue to look uneven. Employer contributions in the public sector remain far more generous and this appears to act as an incentive to remain enrolled, raising the question of whether minimum contributions should be raised overall in order to incentivise more private sector workers to keep paying in.
“The figures suggest that women continue to be less likely to be paying into a workplace scheme, reflecting lower earnings and perhaps that they may be under more short term financial pressure.
“Against a backdrop of an increasing shift towards defined contribution pensions overall, it’s worrying that workers in these largely private sector schemes face such a potential shortfall in retirement compared with public sector workers.
“It’s great that 8 in ten people are paying in, but the success of auto-enrolment in boosting participation masks the real issue of insufficiency. We need to move away from a mindset that simply having a workplace pension in itself is enough and towards a greater understanding of the benefits of making higher contributions.”
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