The financial disparity between men and women extends beyond the workplace into retirement, a time when women are more likely to live in poverty.
In fact, women are almost twice as likely as men are to live below the poverty line during retirement, with single and minority women struggling the most,
CNNMoney reports.
Men aged 65 or older have an annual median income of $27,612 a year, but their female counterparts depend on average of only $16,040 a year, Census data show.
Editor’s Note: Retire 10 Years Earlier With These 4 Stocks
Women have less money during their golden years for multiple reasons, including their tendencies to earn less, save less and live longer.
"You combine lower resources with longer life expectancies and very quickly you can identify that there is more risk here," Dave Littell, retirement income program director at The American College, tells CNNMoney.
Aggravating matters, women also tend to work less.
Female workers make up about two-thirds of the part-time labor force. And, women are more likely to leave the workforce to raise children and be caregivers for sick relatives. As a result, women work an average of 12 years less than men, according top AARP Public Policy Institute data.
These factors impact their ability to save for retirement and the amount of Social Security benefits they receive.
Further adding to women's plight is the fact that many enter retirement single. In 2013, less than half of women 65 or older were married, CNNMoney points out. This means many women are living on their own while trying to manage rising costs of living, including their long-term medical costs.
Being married can also be problematic, Rebecca Barsch, a vice president at Northwestern Mutual, tells
Fox Business Network.
Despite the likelihood of having a longer lifespan, many wives do not take an active role in retirement planning, Barsch explains. And when their husbands outline a plan it's often based on expectations for their longevity and the "women are the ones holding the bag," she notes.
"When he's gone, who takes care of the wife?" she asks.
Overall, women are not preparing for retirement to same degree as men, even when they are working and able.
In a Northwestern Mutual survey, working women recognized regular contributions to a retirement plan as an important component of "personal financial success," yet 25 percent have not achieved this goal compared to just 5 percent of men, according to Fox Business Network.
Many women have worsened their positions by stopping contributions to their employer-sponsored retirement plans and taking premature distributions during the financial crisis.
Women are worried about retirement and rightfully so. Many recognize they do not have enough money to retire as soon as their male counterparts do, Fox Business Network reports.
And so half of female baby boomers expect to work past age 65.
Alert: Obama’s Budget Takes Aim at Retired Americans
© 2025 Newsmax Finance. All rights reserved.