Women Face Retirement Woes
The report, Your Future Paycheck: What Women Need to Know About Pay, Social Security, Pensions, Savings and Investments, found that women’s’ retirement balances are hurt by:
- lower pay,
- lack of pension coverage,
- time off for care giving,
- general employment patterns, and
- marital status
The report, sponsored by the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER), came to the startling conclusion that for women with income from private pensions or annuities, their median benefit is $4,164, compared to $7,768 for men.
According to WISER, not only do women earn $.73 cents for every dollar a man makes, but other report findings show that:
- only one in five women receive private pension income,
- women lose $659,139 in earnings as a result of care giving duties, and
- 63% of single older women have retirement incomes under $15,000
Worklife Problems
Women report significant economic issues while they are still working. Women generally earn about 70% of what men earn with the same college education
According to the survey,
- 47% of women ages 21-34 are more likely to carry credit card debt than 35% of men,
- 53% of young single women live paycheck-to-paycheck compared to 42% of men,
- more women work part-time in female-dominated occupations that pay less and do not offer benefits,
- almost six in ten African-American women and more than half of Hispanic women, worry that they can’t save adequately for retirement, and
- fewer women enroll in pension plans, 45.5%, than do men at 54.5%.
The full report, Your Future Paycheck, and an executive summary may be obtained at the WISER Web site .