Boomer women who live alone struggle to make ends meet

Boomer women who live alone struggle to make ends meet

By Bob Moos
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

June 28, 2006

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Women are more likely than men to spend old age in poverty, in part because many have spent their lives at an economic disadvantage, said Laurie Young, director of the Older Women's League in Washington. “Women still earn an average of only 76 percent of what men earn,” she said. “That means women have an average of $250,000 less over their working lives to invest in their retirement.”

Women also drop out of the work force for an average of 12 years to care for children or parents. When they do, they forfeit an average $550,000 in wages over their lifetime, Young said. As family caregivers, women often take more flexible jobs that come with low wages and few, if any, benefits. Frequent job changes also make it harder to qualify for pensions.

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Though boomer women have worked longer outside the home, they're also more likely to be divorced and have fewer children who can help them as they grow old and frail, Hounsell said. Retirement consultant Anna Rappaport said many women get blindsided by divorce.

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Still, retirement experts agree that women won't be able to improve their fate in old age entirely on their own. They'll need changes in Social Security, employer-sponsored retirement plans and labor laws.

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“Women shouldn't be penalized for their caregiving when it comes time to figure their Social Security benefits,” she said. “They should be given credit for the unpaid care they've provided.” Social Security also needs to rethink its benefits for divorced women, said Kimberley Strassel, co-author of the just-published “Leaving Women Behind: Modern Families, Outdated Laws.” A marriage must last 10 years before a divorced spouse can claim benefits based on a former spouse. Since most divorces now occur within seven years, that rule is out of date, Strassel said... “Traditional pensions give wives an automatic claim on their spouse's benefits, but 40l(k) plans usually do not,” Munnell said.

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Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060628/news_1b28older.html

I even know men who make their wife give them their SS because the said you did not work so it is mine. In retirement many women sit on the wrong side. I am a little older than a Boomer but it can be a time when one recalls what a silly thing you have done.

I think we're going to find that women will be working longer and dying sooner.

The reality is that as employers continue to dump their pension plans and pensioners (it appears to be the newest fad, outsourcing being an earlier one), everyone is going to be in the same sinking boat.