A N A LY S I S LABOUR AND SOCIAL JUSTICE REALIZING SOCIAL JUSTICE Latvia‘s Pension System in Focus Marija Krūmiņa, Dominik Gerber Riga, September 2024 Stable and resilient democracies depend on welfare systems that meet basic needs, reduce inequality, and ensure income stability throughout a person’s life. While the three Baltic welfare states differ notably in their approaches to achieving social justice, their capacity for redistribution remains among the weakest in Europe. The Latvian pension system reflects these weaknesses and falls short of fulfilling the essential elements of social justice. This is most evident in its inability to mitigate old-age poverty, which disproportionately af­fects women, worsens with age, and is likely to remain exceptionally high despite recent reform efforts. To enhance social justice, effective pension reform in Latvia must prior­itize reducing the unacceptably high poverty risks faced by the elderly. A promising policy direction is the introduction of a means-tested sup­plementary benefit scheme, providing support when pensions, post-retirement income, and asset returns are insufficient to cover ba­sic living expenses, including long-term care. When designing pension reforms, Latvian policymakers should avoid citing the Soviet legacy to diminish their responsibility in shaping post-transition welfare policy. They should also be cautious about adopting‘success stories’ from neighboring countries without thor­oughly analyzing what achieving social justice specifically requires in Latvia.