The Search for Public Policy to Aid Women in Retirement
The statistics are discouraging…women face an elevated risk of falling into poverty in their later years, and the causes are numerous. For example, women typically have more zero-earning years in their work records for Social Security benefit calculations, their income-earning careers tend to be a decade shorter than their male counterparts, and they have statistically longer life spans than men. Coupled with that, women frequently marry older men, with the likelihood they’ll outlive their spouse and more frequently face the burden of healthcare expenses for an aging spouse.
Other factors leading to the increased poverty risk senior women face include a lack of in-depth understanding of family finances, a short-term perspective on financial planning, and a general feeling that the male-dominated financial planning industry does not adequately address the needs of women. NextAvenue’s Kerry Hannon participated in a recent Senate hearing and a subsequent Employee Benefit Research Institute briefing on this subject, and has summarized the thoughts of these two forums in a post today on www.nextavenue.org. Her article includes a discussion on “… public policy initiatives to help women save for retirement…” Read her post here…
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