Social Security:

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Social Security Why Women Rely on the "Safety
Net" More Than Men December 2008
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• Social Security is the central pillar of
  retirement incomefor most Americans.
• Women rely more on Social Security than men
  because the combination of
• longer life expectancy, and
• fewer resources.

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Illustration of longevityYou might have seen
this family picture of the Knauss family. The
Inquirer ran an article on Sarah Knauss, who
celebrated her 118th birthday. Ms. Knauss has
collected Social Security for 53 years Her
daughter turned 95 the same month. She has
collected Social Security for 30 years. She just
had given away her Oldsmobile and moved into a
retirement community across the street from her
mothers. Sarahs grandson, is 73. He lives
nearby in Reading. He has collected Social
Security for a decade. See the Philadelphia
Inquirer picture of the 6-generation family on
the next slide
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• Consequences of longer life expectancy.
• So, it is pretty clear that women live longer
  than men. Two protections that Social Security
  provides are critical to women
• Social Security benefits are lifelong (if we live
  as long as Ms. Knauss, we most likely would have
  outlived our savings or other assets, while Soc
  Sec protects for life.)
• Social Securitys COLA (cost of living
  adjustments) are also vital for the very old.
  Pensions or annuities are not indexed to
  automatically increase with inflation, that means
  that income from these sources are reduced due to
  inflation.

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• Consequences of longer life expectancy, contd
• women outlive spouses (also men are usually
  older to start, so the probability for a woman to
  be widowed than a man, is much higher)

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So to summarize so far, we have seen that women
live longer than men and that women who live
alone are poorer than married women. That is
pretty self-explanatory, but you might ask
yourself Why are older women poorer than old
men?
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• Women are poorer in old age than men because
• Women over the life course earn less than men
• Have more interrupted work histories (care
  giving responsibilities for children and elderly)
• Are less likely to have pensions (not vested)
• Are less likely to have savings/assets (earn 75
  of mens wages- dont earn enough to save)
• Are more likely to have expensive chronic
  illnesses which are most likely not covered by
  insurance (remember, LTC is only covered by
  Medicaid)- so most is private pay depletes
  savings fast)

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Poverty also increases with age Life expectancy
for women at 65 19 years for men at
65 15 years Increase in centenarians 39 men to
100 women --- 85 20 men to 100 women --- 100
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With increased age increases the risk of chronic
illness and need for costly medications. The
oldest old, seniors over 85 spend the most on
health care. Women tend to take more medicines
than men and require more LTC due to increased
longevity.
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• Thus, I showed that Social Security is more
  needed by women because Women
• Live longer than men
• And have less resources for their old age due to
  gender roles which assign caregiving duties to
  women (i.e., quit jobs or take extended leaves of
  absence)
• Gender wage gap (partially reflects these spotty
  and interrupted work histories) also less able
  to save due to lower wages

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To conclude, instead of privatizing Social
Security and increasing the risk for all
Americans, we need to strengthen and preserve
Social Security for all, but especially for women.