Only half (50 per cent) of part-time employees say they have a workplace pension, despite average earnings of £13,803 being above the automatic enrolment threshold, according to Fidelity International.

Research from the investment and retirement specialist pointed out that it had been four years since all eligible workers were required to be automatically enrolled into workplace schemes and suggested that some workers were either unaccounted for or were unaware of the pensions they were paying into.

The research showed that known workplace pension saving among part-time workers was most widespread in the education and healthcare, and finance and government sectors, with 74 per cent and 73 per cent of employees from these respective sectors utilising occupational schemes.

Meanwhile, workplace pension uptake among workers in the retail and leisure sector was 57 per cent.

The research also suggested a gender divide, with women who worked part time having average earnings of £13,468, less than men’s average of £14,908, but were still more likely to save into a workplace pension, with 54 per cent putting money away into an occupational scheme compared to just 43 per cent of men.

This did not translate into confidence over their financial future, with 79 per cent of women who worked part time stating they were doubtful they would have enough in their pension pots to fund their retirement, compared to 65 per cent of men.

Fidelity International investment director, Maike Currie, said: “Auto-enrolment has helped millions of workers save towards their futures, but there is still a significant number of people who are falling between the cracks.

“Not enough part-time employees are engaged with, or even have, a workplace pension. More women than men work part time, and while our research shows that women in part-time employment are more likely to have a workplace pension compared to men, they are still a fifth more likely to doubt whether they will have enough saved for retirement.

“Part-time workers who are under the age of 22, are on zero-hour contracts and/or are earning less than £10,000 a year are not currently eligible for auto-enrolment, and many don’t know where to go to find out more about savings towards retirement.

“The result is that half (50 per cent) of part-time workers don’t think they will have enough to fund their retirement, showing more needs to be done to build awareness of the state pension as well as the benefits of supplementing this with a workplace pension where possible.”

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