Press Release
Women Still Have Less Money For Retirement Than Men
WASHINGTON, DC — Older women today are twice as likely as men to be poor. Even more startling is this trend is expected to continue for women who recently graduated from college.
These findings are from a new report, Your Future Paycheck: What Women Need to Know About Pay, Social Security, Pensions, Savings and Investments that reveals the direct link between a woman’s current paycheck and her retirement prospects. The report, released by the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER), is the first of its kind to address all the factors preventing women from a secure retirement.
While women live longer than men they end up with less money for retirement due to pay inequities, lack of pension coverage, care giving, employment patterns, and marital status. These factors can reduce a woman’s ability to receive the maximum amount from Social Security, 401k plans, or savings. Findings from the report include:
- Women earn 73 cents to every dollar a man makes
- Only one in five women receive income from private pensions
- Women lose $659,139 in earnings as a result of care giving during their lifetime
- A 25-year-old woman with a college degree today will lose $523,000 in her lifetime due to these factors
- 63% of single (widowed, divorced, never married) older women have retirement incomes under $15,000
"Since women make less money they don’t have as much money to put into retirement savings. Many women, regardless of what they do and whether they work full-time or part-time, face this fact. Men don’t share the same consequences,” said Cindy Hounsell, executive director of WISER.
Teresa Heinz, chairman of the Heinz Family Philanthropies who provided funding for this study and the establishment of WISER, said “The face of retirement and poverty is that of a woman. Since so many women spend these years alone and poor, we must change the factors that contribute to this national nightmare. Every woman deserves to have economic security during her retirement.”
Your Future Paycheck also revealed:
Working and Saving: When women are unable to save their retirement suffers
- Women ages 21-34 are more likely to carry credit card debt than men (47% to 35% respectively)
- More young single women live paycheck-to-paycheck than men (53% to 42%)
- More women work part-time in female-dominated occupations that pay less and do not offer benefits
- Almost six in ten African-American women (57%) and more than half of Hispanic women (54%) worry that they can’t save adequately for retirement
Wage Gap: Even though more women are in today’s workforce, they still earn less than men
- Half of all full-time working women earned less than $27,355 compared to $37,339 for men, so they have less money to save
- Women are earning about 70 percent of what men earn with the same college education
Pensions: Women still do not take full advantage of their pensions plans
- 45.5% of working women participate in pension plans compared to 54.5% of men
- For women with income from private pensions or annuities, their median benefit is $4,164, compared to $7,768 for men
The full report, Your Future Paycheck, and an executive summary may be obtained at www.wiser.heinz.org .
The Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER) is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit dedicated to ensuring the security of women’s retirement income through outreach, partnerships, and policy advocacy.
WISER was established in 1996 with a grant from the Teresa and H. John Heinz III Foundation.
###
401khelpcenter.com, LLC is not the author of this press release and is not associated or affiliated with any firm or organization mentioned unless otherwise noted. Use of any information obtained from this press release is voluntary, and reliance on it should only be undertaken after an independent review of its accuracy, completeness, efficacy, and timeliness. Reference to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, service mark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by 401khelpcenter.com, LLC.
