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Earnings and Women's Retirement Security

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by Alicia H. Munnell and Natalia Zhivan

WP#2006-12  

Abstract

As the U.S. population ages, traditional sources of retirement income will likely fall short of what is needed to maintain pre-retirement living standards for many individuals. The issue of retirement security is especially important for women, because even today nearly 30 percent of single women, who represent a majority of households at older ages, are classified as poor or near-poor. One solution to the retirement security challenge is for women to work more during their lifetimes and to stay in the workforce longer as they age. By and large, those who continue to work until their mid-60s or beyond do not end up poor. The question is explored in this study is what determines women's labor force activity at older ages and what determines when they retire. Only by understanding these levers is it possible to make changes that are likely to encourage stronger labor force participation, and thus greater retirement security, for women.

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Alicia H. Munnell is the Peter F. Drucker Professor of Management Sciences in Boston College’s Carroll School of Management and Director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College (CRR). Natalia Zhivan is a graduate research assistant at the CRR. This working paper is prepared for a book on “Women’s Retirement Security” to be edited by Heidi Hartmann, President of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. The research reported herein was performed, in part, pursuant to a grant from the Atlantic Philanthropies and Russell Sage. The findings and conclusions are solely those of the authors and do not represent the views of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Atlantic Philanthropies, AARP, Russell Sage or Boston College.
Tags: Work and Retirement, Working Papers,
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