Nearly half of European workers would sacrifice pay for a higher pension contribution by their employer, compared to only 13% who would give up some of their salary for extra annual leave, according to Aon Hewitt.

Surprisingly, the desire for greater pension contributions from employers is uniformly the benefit most requested across all surveyed countries. This demonstrates that European workers are beginning to take their long-term savings and future extremely seriously.

This research is part of Aon Hewitt's European Employee Benefits Benchmark, a survey of more than 7,500 workers from across Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the UK, ten of the leading economies in Europe. The Benchmark focuses on the views of workers across Europe on topics such as retirement, employee benefits and other pension-related issues.

Although greater pension contributions was top of the list, there were some major differences between the countries. In Ireland the percentage of workers who would go for this option was 61%, while this percentage was around 55% for Belgium, Denmark, the UK and France.

In Germany, Spain, Norway and Switzerland around 45% of the workers would agree with a lower salary if their employer would make a higher pension contribution. The percentage was the lowest in the Netherlands, 27%, as Dutch workers already pay relatively much into their pension pot.

Across Europe, financial security in the event of a serious injury or illness was also a popular ‘salary sacrifice’ option, as was assistance with saving for a major expenditure such as a home, car or school fees.

Ian Hinton, global benefits practice leader for Europe at Aon Hewitt, commented: “The increase of the retirement age in many countries, and the financial crisis impacting many pension funds has focused people’s minds on their own long-term financial security. It is an absolute turnaround that people are prepared to sacrifice their hard-earned money today for a more financially secure future tomorrow.

"Despite the protests in France, and Greece, the survey suggests that a growing number of employees do understand why changes are needed to secure their future financial situation.”

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