Women in Business

Gender issues affect more than just a woman's paychecks. Longevity, family caregiving, and the gender wage gap influence women's long-term financial well-being and retirement security.

While most U.S. workers are facing a retirement savings deficit, for women, the effect is compounded: Lower pay translates into reduced Social Security benefits, smaller pensions, and less retirement savings.

Generally speaking, women earn less than men, live longer than men, and often take time out of the workforce to have children and/or to care for an aging parent or sick loved one. The potential consequence of these realities? While most U.S. workers are facing a retirement savings deficit, for women, the effect is compounded: Lower pay translates into reduced Social Security benefits, smaller pensions, and less retirement savings.

Women have a longer life expectancy than men. That fact alone underlines the need for comparatively greater retirement savings. One research study projects that a woman will require a nest egg equivalent to 11.5 times her final salary to have an adequately funded retirement starting at age 65 (a man will need 10.6 times his final pay). It’s estimated that only 17% of women will have that much in retirement assets by that age.¹

A woman may spend much of her retirement alone. A quarter of American women aged 65-74 are widows, while others are alone by choice. Household expenses are rarely halved after a divorce or a spouse’s death, and a woman’s financial survival may depend entirely on her degree of retirement planning. Social Security survivor benefits may prove insufficient: if a spouse files for Social Security at 62, the survivor’s benefit for the longer-lived spouse will be up to 30% smaller than if the claiming decision was made at Full Retirement Age.^1,2

1 - marketwatch.com/story/8-ways-women-can-improve-their-retirement-security-2016-06-30 [6/30/16]

2 - nytimes.com/2015/09/05/your-money/new-widows-have-another-concern-their-finances.html [9/5/15]