On June 6, 2023, the entire chamber of the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional paragraph 2 of numeral 2 of article 9 of Law 797 of 2003, concerning the contribution time of women. This article established the requirement for accrediting the right to an old age pension in the average premium regime with defined benefit - administered by Colpensiones - at 1,300 weeks of contribution.
The unconstitutionality claim was filed by a citizen, after considering that the regulation did not recognize the right of women to acquire special social security protection.
Within the study carried out by the Constitutional Court, several questions were raised, such as: should the same number of weeks of contributions be required for both men and women to prove the right to an old age pension? and as a consequence, are the fundamental rights to equality, special protection for women, and the right to social security being violated?
Women must have the same number of weeks of pension contributions as men - 1,300 weeks - with the difference that women must prove them in a shorter period. To this situation must be added the factor of informality in labor matters, gender discrimination, and the invisibility of unpaid work in the care economy, most of which is performed by women.
The Supreme Court emphasized that although the requirement of the same number of weeks of contributions for both genders could be considered neutral, the fact is that it has generated a situation of indirect discrimination against women, evaluating the barriers they face in accessing the labor market. Additionally, it added that the norm under study does not contain the gender focus that is constitutionally demanded today, to guarantee that women have real access to the recognition of an old age pension.
Based on these arguments, the Constitutional Court urged Congress, together with the National Government, to define a regime that guarantees, under equitable conditions, effective access to the right to an old age pension for women -especially for those who are heads of household-, which will contribute to close the historical gender gap.
The effects of this decision will apply to start January 1, 2026, on which date, if Congress and the Government have not provided the regime to be used, the weeks will begin to decrease as follows:
| Year | Minimum contribution weeks for women |
| 2026 | 1250 |
| 2027 | 1225 |
| 2028 | 1200 |
| 2029 | 1175 |
| 2030 | 1150 |
| 2031 | 1125 |
| 2032 | 1100 |
| 2033 | 1075 |
| 2034 | 1050 |
| 2035 | 1025 |
| 2036 | 1000 |
In conclusion, as of 2026, the minimum number of weeks that women affiliated with Colpensiones must prove will be 1,250 weeks, and, in the following years, this number will be reduced by 25 weeks per year, until reaching 1,000 weeks of contributions in 2036.
