Short answers, pulled from the story.
Augustus Caesar created the first pension plan for Roman soldiers in 13 BC. This plan offered retired soldiers a lump sum of at least 3,000 denarii after sixteen years of service in a legion and four years in the military reserves. The system evolved to draw from a special fund known as the aerarium militare, established by Augustus in 5 or 6 AD.
Germany became the first country to introduce a universal pension program for employees when Otto von Bismarck enacted the Old Age and Disability Insurance Bill in 1889. This program was originally designed to provide an annuity for workers who reached the age of 70, though this threshold was lowered to 65 years in 1916. The German model was based on a pay-as-you-go system where funds paid in by contributors were immediately used to pay current pension obligations.
The first American pensions emerged in 1636 when Plymouth Colony offered the first colonial pensions to veterans of the colonial wars. Other colonies such as Virginia, Maryland in the 1670s, and New York in the 1690s followed suit. The general assembly of the Virginia Company approved Virginia Act IX of 1644, which stated that all hurt or maimed men should be relieved and provided for by the several counties where such men resided or inhabited.
The beginning of the modern state pension in the United Kingdom came with the Old Age Pensions Act 1908. This legislation provided 5 shillings a week for those over 70 whose annual means did not exceed 31 pounds 50 shillings. The Act was a response to the growing recognition that the elderly needed a basic level of financial support to avoid destitution and represented a shift from the traditional poor laws.
In April 2012, the Northern Mariana Islands Retirement Fund filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This event made it the first U.S. public pension plan to declare bankruptcy, with only 268.4 million dollars in assets and 911 million dollars in liabilities. The plan experienced low investment returns and a benefit structure that had been increased without corresponding raises in funding.
The gender pension gap varies significantly by country, ranging from 3% in Estonia to 47% in Japan according to data between 2013 and 2018. This gap reflects deep-seated inequalities in the labor market and the pension system. Women tend to live longer than men, with an average of 22.8 years in retirement compared to 18.4 years for men, which means that women need to save more to ensure that they have enough income to last throughout their retirement.