Social Security, Retirement Savings Would Benefit From Closing Gender Pay Gap

Among those age 65 or older, research shows that nearly twice as many women as men are poor: 11% of women, compared to 6.6% of men.

And the more income women have, the more they will be able to save for retirement.

It’s been reported that men had an average of $139,467 in their individual retirement accounts as of 2012, compared with the average of $81,700 that women had stashed in their IRAs, according to a report released by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Strengthen Social Security’s Finances 

Social Security Works also looked at research from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research that estimates closing the wage gap between women and men of the same age, at similar  levels  of education and hours of work, would directly increase the wages of 59.3% of women –and, in 2012, would have led to additional  income of $447.6 billion dollars.

Social Security Works’ report states that “since about 97% of female workers have earnings below Social Security’s tax cap ($117,000 in 2014), and the vast majority of these women work in employment covered by Social Security, most of this additional income would be subject to Social Security, generating tens  of billions of additional Social Security revenue each year. This additional revenue, coupled with women receiving benefits on their own earnings records, as opposed to their spouses’, could reduce Social Security’s projected longterm shortfall by roughly onethird.”

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