Women’s Financial Security and the Importance of Social Security

Women face significant challenges in retirement: lower lifetime earnings, work interruptions often due to caregiving responsibilities, and longer life expectancy. Social Security, however, has certain program features that help offset these hurdles—most notably, spousal and survivor benefits, a benefit formula that replaces a greater share of earnings for lower lifetime earners, and automatic adjustment of benefits to keep up with inflation. Social Security helps offset economic disparities and reduce poverty risk among older women, underscoring the program’s importance. Read the full report.

Key Takeaways

• Women receive about $4,800 less annually in Social Security retirement benefits than men—yet because women have between one-third and one-half less in retirement savings than men, they rely on the benefits more.
• Median weekly earnings for women working full-time are 16% lower than they are for men. The roughly $10,000 annual difference in earnings that results compounds over a career, leading to less savings and increased risk of poverty in retirement.
• Women are more likely than men to work in part-time positions, take breaks from paid employment, and reduce working hours to care for children, aging parents, or other family members. In fact, 61 percent of all caregivers are women, leading to more career interruptions, reduced earnings, and diminished retirement savings and Social Security contributions.
• Women live about five years longer than men (81.1 years vs. 75.8 years), increasing their risk of outliving their savings.