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Just over a quarter of companies in Spain offer any kind of workplace pension or retirement savings scheme for their employees and that figure has barely shifted in nine years.

 

According to the ninth edition of KPMG Abogados' report on the state of pensions in Spain, only 27% of businesses have such a system in place, leaving the country significantly behind its European neighbours and raising serious questions about what retirement will actually look like for millions of workers in the decades ahead.

 

Across Europe, around 28% of employed people are covered by occupational pension schemes. In Spain, that figure sits at roughly 15%, meaning a substantial portion of the working population is heading towards retirement relying almost entirely on the state pension and whatever personal savings they've managed to put aside.

 

The picture varies considerably depending on the sector. The financial industry leads the way, with 61.8% of companies offering retirement plans, followed by the energy sector at 43.3% and the chemical and pharmaceutical sector at 36.7%. At the other end of the scale, transport and logistics and manufacturing barely register, with coverage of 16.6% and 16.8% respectively.

 

Among the companies that do have schemes in place, more than a third operate several different plans, most of which are open to the entire workforce. The average employer contribution works out at 3.6% of each employee's salary.

 

The concern isn't just about today's workers. Spain is ageing rapidly, and projections suggest the proportion of the population aged over 65 will grow from just over 20% now to more than 30% by the middle of the century. The financial pressure that creates on the public pension system is significant. Pension spending currently accounts for 13.7% of GDP and could rise to 17.3% by 2050, according to the report's analysis.

 

KPMG's study frames the stagnation of workplace pension provision as a growing problem rather than a static one, warning that the gap between what people earn during their working lives and what they can expect to receive in retirement risks widening further unless the take-up of supplementary schemes improves substantially.

 

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