Typically, with pension plans you'll encounter two types. There's the defined benefit, where the plan promises a set benefit, almost regardless of contribution. That is what we have at Dalhousie. Your pension payout is based on your best three years of earnings. The second type of pension plan is the defined contribution. Your pension payments are dictated by how much you've paid into the plan over the course of your career.
Because we have a defined benefit plan, which is based on your best three years of earnings, by adjusting female full professor salaries, if we caught them in the three years before retirement, their pension payout would be based on their higher salary. The impact of that pay equity gap over the course of their career, in terms of their pension payment, would be smaller. If we had the defined contribution plan, which is based on what they've been paying in over the course of their entire career, you can appreciate how the impact would be significant.
But I don't let us off the hook entirely, because of course someone's salary.... We have a pension plan, but folks are also investing in their own retirement savings. Their career earnings will impact how much they're able to put away for that.
So a defined benefit plan doesn't save the day, but it certainly helps.