New Data Demonstrates Mothers’ Retirement Insecurity

A financially secure retirement is key to aging with dignity. Yet mothers face significant financial precarity heading into retirement when compared to fathers and men and women without children.¹ Together, gender pay gaps, occupational segregation, and care responsibilities all negatively impact women’s financial health and their ability to prepare for retirement. Not only are women more likely to work in low-wage jobs or work part-time, these jobs are less likely to have benefits, including retirement accounts.² For women that do have access to retirement plans, gender pay gaps mean they often also have less to contribute to retirement plans. Furthermore, care responsibilities, by impacting whether and how much women work, result in less access to employee-sponsored retirement accounts, and lower earnings, which translates into lower savings. A 2021 report by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) and the Center on Poverty and Social Policy found 16 percent of women 65 or older are living in poverty, compared to 12 percent of men.³ The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted work for many people, especially for mothers. As mothers were often required to take on additional caregiving responsibilities, and, in some cases, leave the workforce entirely, they were uniquely impacted by reduced employment and work hours during the pandemic.

Given past research that shows the cumulative losses that mothers face when leaving the workforce for even a short period of time, focusing on mothers’ retirement security since the pandemic is critical.⁴ Relying on data from the Financial Health Network, this report analyzes how mothers’ retirement security compares to fathers and nonparents since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using qualitative and quantitative measures of financial security, from savings to the use of retirement accounts, I assess the state of retirement security. Finally, I offer some policy recommendations to help build more equitable retirement security in the future.

Mothers spend their lives making decisions that benefit their children and families, often at a direct cost to their own economic security. Ensuring mothers are secure in retirement is essential for building an equitable society. Moreover, the steps that improve mothers’ retirement security are also steps that create more economic opportunity overall.

Ensuring mothers are secure in retirement is essential for building an equitable society.

The Current State of Retirement Security

The pandemic, by causing an acute recession that disproportionately impacted women, and by disrupting the care economy and occupations where women have historically been overrepresented, has likely worsened mothers’ retirement security.⁵ New data collected in 2021 from the Financial Health Network shows that only 47 percent of mothers in the labor force have a retirement account or pension.⁶ By contrast, 40 percent more fathers, a total of 66 percent of fathers in the labor force, have a retirement or pension account. Looking only at parents with full-time jobs, 73 percent of fathers have a retirement account, compared to 66 percent of mothers. Thus, significant gaps exist in the mere ownership of retirement accounts for mothers and fathers, even when looking only at parents that are working full time jobs.

There are similar gender and parent gaps in the share of respondents that feel that they have saved enough for retirement.⁷ While 47 percent of fathers and 52 percent of nonparents say they have saved enough for retirement, a mere 33 percent of mothers feel that they have saved enough.⁸ Part of these disparities can be attributed to the reality that mothers face many different challenges that compete for their financial resources. For example, only 24 percent of mothers said that saving for retirement was their most important financial goal, compared to 30 percent of fathers and 36 percent of non-parents.⁹ Mothers are more likely to name other financial goals, such as paying off a mortgage, as their most important financial goal.¹⁰ Additionally, women may simply be more accurate in their assessment of their savings goals compared to men, as women are marginally more likely than men to complete retirement planning activities.¹¹

When we look at the total reported value of personal retirement savings, the gap between retirement security among parents grows even more stark.¹² Twenty-six percent of fathers have saved more than $100,000 for their retirement compared to 16 percent of mothers.¹³ Broken out by parent’s age, savings show alarming disparities.

Figure 1

The share of those reporting $100,000 or more saved for retirement are similar for the youngest age bracket, and can be attributed to the early-career nature of those respondents. However, when we look at the pre-retirement age group, fathers are nearly twice as likely to have more than $100,000 saved for retirement compared to mothers. It is evident that the mother–father retirement savings gap widens over the lifetime of a mother, causing mothers to reach retirement age wholly unprepared.

50 percent of mothers in the survey reported having no personal retirement savings at all.

While the exact amount needed for retirement varies, most Americans expect to need roughly $1.7 million for their retirement.¹⁴ One rule of thumb for adequate retirement savings is to save 15 percent of gross income a year.¹⁵ Using U.S. median annual earnings of $58,000 as an estimate, one would need $175,000 saved by the age of 40 to be on track for a secure retirement.¹⁶ Clearly, far too many Americans are underprepared for retirement. Alarmingly, mothers are not only much less likely to have enough savings for retirement compared to fathers and nonparents, they are also less likely to have any retirement savings compared to fathers.¹⁷ In fact, 50 percent of mothers in the survey reported having no personal retirement savings at all.¹⁸

Figure 2

Additionally, financial instability in the present, caused in part by the COVID-19 pandemic, will likely hurt retirement security in the long run. While the percent of people who reduced their contributions to retirement savings during the pandemic was consistent across parents and nonparents, parents were more likely to withdraw from their retirement accounts than non-parents, likely due to lower income from leaving work due to care responsibilities. Of those with personal retirement accounts, 8 percent of mothers and 15 percent of fathers reported withdrawing funds from their retirement accounts to help cover household expenses between late 2020 and late 2021,¹⁹ compared to only 7 percent of non-parents. Fathers may have been slightly more likely to withdraw from retirement accounts than mothers because they have more saved in their personal retirement accounts. Thus, data during the pandemic shows significant gaps between mothers’ and fathers’ retirement security. Looking at the drivers of retirement security helps illuminate why these gaps exist.

Drivers and Impacts of Retirement Security Gaps

The factors that impact retirement security are interrelated and compounding. Labor force participation is most directly associated with retirement security because the vehicles for saving, such as Social Security and 401(k)s, are dependent on employment. Care responsibilities, occupational segregation, and wage gaps impact mothers’ labor force participation and ability to access, contribute to, and use different retirement savings accounts. Additionally, demographic trends mean that mothers often have different expenses in retirement compared to fathers. Below, each driver of retirement security is discussed in turn to elucidate the multiple ways that mothers face challenges in building their retirement security throughout their lifetimes.

Labor Force Participation

Mothers have historically had slightly higher labor force participation rates than women without children, yet lower participation rates than men and fathers.²⁰ There are also differences in labor force participation rates and employment levels by race.²¹ For example, among women, Black women tend to have the highest labor force participation rates, but also tend to have higher unemployment rates than women of other races.²² This is because labor force participation rates include those that work full- and part-time, in addition to those that are looking for work but are not currently employed. By contrast, Hispanic men tend to have the highest labor force participation rates amongst men, while Hispanic women tend to have labor force participation rates closer to white women’s.²³ There is also significant variation in labor force participation rates by age. Black women have the highest participation rate during prime working years, while Asian women have the highest participation rates in pre-retirement years.²⁴

Table 1

Figure 3

Once the COVID-19 pandemic began, many women and mothers dropped out of the labor force, due to care responsibilities.²⁶ Women and mothers have also been slower to return to work. In February 2023, employment for women finally recovered to pre-pandemic levels, while mens’ employment surpassed pre-pandemic levels in February of 2022.²⁷ Black and Hispanic women had reached pre-pandemic levels of employment before February, while white women’s employment remains slightly lower. Labor force participation is deeply related to personal economic security beyond a paycheck. Work is how individuals and families are able to gain health care, and often how they are able to save for retirement. Because retirement savings, from employee-sponsored accounts to Social Security, are inextricably linked to work history, then time in the workforce and income during one’s working life are key drivers of how much someone can save for retirement. It is important to view fluctuations in labor force participation in the context of individuals’ ability to access benefits. For this reason, reducing gaps in labor force participation is necessary for improving the overall economic security of mothers.

Because retirement savings, from employee-sponsored accounts to Social Security, are inextricably linked to work history, then time in the workforce and income during one’s working life are key drivers of how much someone can save for retirement.

Care Responsibilities

Becoming a mother or having other caregiving responsibilities causes additional losses of income relative to men, and to women without caregiving responsibilities. This is because workplace policies are not set up to support the need to accommodate caregiving responsibilities that can be disruptive and often remove women from work for a period of time. The lack of a child care and early education system, paid family and medical leave, paid sick days, and long-term care services and supports (LTSS) in the United States can create financial challenges and disrupt work hours, promotions and other forms of advancement. The combination of these factors lowers women’s lifetime earnings. A recent report by Amy Matsui and Amy Royce states that these unequal caregiving responsibilities result in a $400,000 loss of lifetime earnings for women, and a loss of $1 million in lifetime earnings for Black women.²⁸

Care responsibilities affect mothers multiple times during their career: caring for young children, supporting older children, and providing care for older adults, such as aging parents, all disproportionately impact women and mothers, impacting their ability to work. Most women in their prime work years are mothers. Eighty-six percent of women between the ages of 40 and 44 are mothers, and on average mothers have two children.²⁹ Additionally, a 2020 AARP report finds that 61 percent of caregivers for adults are women, and women are more likely to work less while caregiving. They also find the average age of caregivers for adults is 49 years old.³⁰ Relatedly, a survey by the Pew Research Center found that 23 percent of all adults in the United States and 54 percent of adults in their 40s were part of the “sandwich generation,” meaning they had both a child under the age of 18 and an aging parent over the age of 65.³¹ While the survey didn’t disaggregate by gender, both child and adult caregiving falls disproportionately on women, showing that mothers are increasingly taking on multiple and potentially overlapping care responsibilities during their prime work years. Even if mothers don’t leave the workforce, they may reduce their work hours, turn down promotions, or even retire early due to caregiving responsibilities. AARP found that 61 percent of all caregivers faced at least one such workforce disruption due to caregiving responsibilities.³² Since Social Security benefits are based on average career earnings, these workforce interruptions can reduce overall retirement benefits for Social Security.³³

Wage Penalties and Pay Gaps

Researchers have long been documenting women’s pay and wealth gaps relative to men. Despite some progress towards closing gender pay gaps, women are still paid merely 84 cents on the dollar relative to men.³⁴ Pay gaps are wider for women of color and women with disabilities. Black women are paid 64 cents for every dollar that men are paid, and Hispanic women get 57 cents³⁵ on the dollar.³⁶

Figure 4

There is less research on the pay gap for women with disabilities. However, a 2020 study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the gender pay gap for federal workers found that having a disability resulted in an additional 6 percent wage penalty.³⁷ Women are also over-represented in low-wage, low-benefit, and part-time jobs. People who work in part-time jobs are significantly less likely to have access to retirement accounts. Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in March of 2022, only 43 percent of part-time workers had access to retirement plans, compared to 81 percent of full-time workers.³⁸ Such a dramatic loss of wages translates directly into lost economic security in retirement.

Claudia Goldin recently published a working paper that helps elucidate the effects of gender pay gaps over time. She finds that the motherhood wage penalty, which is the loss in earnings for mothers per child, attenuates over time, as mothers are able to increase the hours they work.³⁹ By contrast, the fatherhood bonus, which is the earnings boost fathers gain per child, grows as fathers age. Ultimately, she finds that while the overall wage gap narrows over time, it is still significant: “When parents are in their late 30s to early 40s, a college graduate mother earns less than 60 cents on a similar father’s dollar.”⁴⁰

By using longitudinal data, Goldin is able to differentiate between three drivers of the gender wage gap: the motherhood penalty, the fatherhood bonus, and the “price of being female,” which is often understood as the gender wage gap, but specifically represents how much less women are paid despite having equal levels of education and skill to men. The interaction of all three of these components is critical for understanding the gender pay gap and financial health of mothers. During a parents’ lifetime, different components of the wage gap play bigger roles: right after having a child the motherhood wage penalty is accounting for a greater share of the gender wage gap than right before retirement.⁴¹ However, the fatherhood wage bonus accounts for a bigger share of the gender wage gap as parents age. Ultimately, she finds that the “price of being female,” and the motherhood penalty, never fully go away. And, given the way retirement programs are structured in the United States, the long-term impact of lost wages from pay inequity and the lack of care infrastructure results in retirement insecurity for far too many women.

Social Security

A significant gap in retirement income is due to lower Social Security benefits because of pay gaps during mothers’ prime work years. While the average Social Security benefit for men was $20,050 per year, it was $15,379 for women.⁴² The Congressional Research Service (CRS) explains how caregiving responsibilities can affect women’s lower Social Security benefit amounts. Because Social Security uses the average earnings of thirty-five years of work history, anyone who works less than thirty-five years will have $0 earnings for years out of the labor force, lowering the average benefit amount.⁴³

Figure 5

The CRS finds that less than half of all mothers have more than thirty-five years of work experience, compared to 60 percent of women without children, and 63 percent or more of fathers.⁴⁴ This is especially concerning because women are less likely to have savings for retirement outside of Social Security as well. The Financial Health Network finds that one-third of women ages 50–64 have no retirement savings at all.⁴⁵

It is worth noting that single individuals, and especially single women and single mothers, are significantly more likely to rely on Social Security for their income compared to married individuals. A CRS report finds that 13.2 percent of married people rely on Social Security for 90 percent or more of their retirement income, compared to 31 percent of individuals that either never married or were widowed.⁴⁶ While the report doesn’t disaggregate by gender and marital status, they do find that 22 percent of women rely on Social Security for 90 percent or more of their income compared to 16 percent of men.⁴⁷ This is especially concerning for mothers’ retirement security given that the United States has the largest share of single mothers, a trend that has been increasing over time.⁴⁸

Demographic Trends

Women leaving the workforce for care responsibilities, pay gaps based on gender, and lower participation rates all reduce women’s savings going into retirement. However, women also often live longer than men. A 2021 CRS study found that women’s life expectancy is 81.2 years on average, compared to 76.2 years for men. Systemic racism and income gaps have also resulted in significant gaps in life expectancy by race.⁴⁹ For example, the average life expectancy for Black people is 74.7 years compared to 78.6 years for white people.⁵⁰ For the purposes of retirement security, the key takeaways are that women often live longer and subsequently need more savings because they will be retired for a longer period of time. Additionally, women often have higher health care expenses than men, resulting in additional costs as they age.⁵¹ However, race is an important lens by which to consider the costs of aging. This is one reason why investing in communities that have been disproportionately harmed by cycles of poverty can be cost-effective in the long run.⁵²

Looking Forward

The retirement security gender gap predated the COVID-19 pandemic, as it represents the culmination of a lifetime of inequalities. However, while the pandemic recession may be behind us, the retirement security gap is poised to widen even further given the long-term impacts of lost earnings and the growing costs for families as the United States contends with its highest inflation in decades. Now is the time to help prepare the next generation for retirement. Below are some policies that would improve equity in retirement.

Improving mothers’ economic security

Two policy priorities for improving mothers’ economic security are passing paid family medical leave and creating a child care and early learning system that is accessible and affordable for families.⁵³ Ensuring mothers are able to take care of their children without worrying about their job security is essential for building economic security in retirement. Research shows that building an affordable child care system would result in an increase of $20,000 in personal retirement savings for mothers and an additional $10,000 in Social Security benefits.⁵⁴

Another chief driver of retirement security gaps by gender is that women and mothers are paid less than men and fathers. Taking steps to erase these gaps and wage penalties can help improve mothers’ earnings and improve the likelihood of being able to save enough for retirement. There are key policy measures that can be enacted to raise mothers’ wages and reduce occupational segregation. Policy solutions include the following:

• Raising the minimum wage.
• Strengthening anti-wage discrimination by passing legislation such as the Paycheck Fairness Act.⁵⁵
• Reducing occupational segregation by ensuring that job opportunities created by recent legislation, including the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, prioritize contracts that will recruit and train workers from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds.⁵⁶

Policies for Equitable Aging

Ensuring that Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Social Security Disability Insurance benefits are adequate and available to all who need them is vital for the economic security of all Americans. However, women and mothers, and especially single, divorced, and widowed women and mothers rely on Social Security benefits for retirement income. Reforming Social Security to also provide women credit for their work while caregiving is one change that could help make these benefits more equitable. The Social Security Caregiver Credit Act, which has been introduced in the past, provides one possible template for this type of legislation in the future.⁵⁷

Another solution that would benefit all is building the long-term services and supports (LTSS) system we need that supports aging adults and people with disabilities to live independently and age with dignity. Half of all adults turning 65 today will need LTSS, and about two in five people who need LTSS today are under 65 years old.⁵⁸ On the federal and state levels, policy makers must build a new, holistic system of LTSS that expands on Medicaid and Medicare to provide sustainable supports and services and guarantee the respect, dignity, and recognition that home care workers and other care workers deserve. This effort must include investments in home- and community-based services that correct Medicaid’s bias toward institutional care while also ensuring everyone has affordable, accessible, safe housing. As life expectancies increase, building equitable access to these types of services can help provide better retirement security by reducing care costs and create more dignified experiences aging by making it easier for individuals to live independently in their homes and communities. One step towards this would be to pass the Better Care, Better Jobs Act, which would invest in home- and community-based services.⁵⁹

Retirement security is an acute issue for mothers, and especially for single mothers and for Black and Latina mothers. Building an economy that enables women to have equitable employment outcomes is necessary to ensure mothers can age with financial security. Much like retirement wealth growing with compounding interest over time, the impacts of gender pay gaps and the motherhood wage penalty compound over time as well. The sooner we erase these gaps, the sooner we can ensure that mothers, who spend so much of their lives caring for others, have the resources for a secure retirement.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the Financial Health Network for providing the data and support that made this report possible. Additionally, the author thanks Meghan Greene, Andrew Warren, and Angela Fontes (Financial Health Network) and Laura Haltzel (The Century Foundation) for their review and comments. Analysis of the data was conducted by The Century Foundation. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the reviewers or partners.

1. Retirement security is often measured at the household level rather than the individual level. Mothers who are in partnerships are likely able to also rely on savings from their partners. The impacts of marital status are discussed further in the discussion on Social Security.
2. John Topoleski and Elizabeth Myers, “Private-Sector Defined Contribution Pension Plans: An Introduction (R47152),” Congressional Research Service, June 2022, https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47152.
3. Hartley et al., “A Lifetime’s Worth of Benefits: The Effects of Affordable, High-quality Child Care on Family Income, the Gender Earnings Gap, and Women’s Retirement Security,” National Women’s Law Center & Center on Poverty & Social Policy – Columbia University, March 2021, https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/A-Lifetimes-Worth-of-Benefits-_FD.pdf.
4. In this report we chose to focus on differences between mothers and fathers. We expect significant racial differences in retirement security as well, however due to sample size concerns we did not look at parent status in conjunction with race. This is an important place for future research.
5. Because this survey represents a point in time (more information in footnote below) survey findings are not longitudinal and cannot discuss trends overtime.
6. In this report, we use nationally representative Financial Health Network data collected from SSRS’s probability-based Opinion Panel® between November 22 and December 29, 2021.
7. Financial Health Network, Financial Health of Women Survey 2021. Administered by SSRS to the SSRS Opinion Panel.
8. Ibid; In our analysis we define parent as anyone with children under the age of 18, including step-children and adopted children, regardless of whether those children live in the same household as the respondent.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. “Men vs. Women: Who makes the financial decisions,” LIMRA, November 2016, https://www.limra.com/en/newsroom/industry-trends/2016/men-vs.-women-who-makes-the-financial-decisions/.
12. When looking at retirement savings for this analysis we look at personal retirement savings in a 401(k) or IRA account in the respondent’s own name. Individuals may have additional household savings, especially if they are married, that they would have access to during retirement.
13. Ibid.
14. Dickler, Jessica, “For most Americans, $1.7 million is the magic retirement number,” CNBC, July 6, 2019, https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/05/how-much-money-do-you-need-to-retire.html.
15. Q.ai, “Retirement Savings by Age: Max Out Your Potential,” Forbes, November 2, 2022, https://www.forbes.com/sites/qai/2022/11/02/retirement-savings-by-age-max-out-your-potential/?sh=29d62d7f2e2b.
16. “Median weekly earnings by age and sex, second quarter 2021,” The Economics Daily, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2021/median-weekly-earnings-by-age-and-sex-second-quarter-2021.htm.
17. There are also significant gaps in retirement account ownership by race. Read more: Hoffman, Klee, and Sullivan, “New Data Reveal Inequality in Retirement Account Ownership,” U.S. Census Bureau, August 31, 2022, https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2022/08/who-has-retirement-accounts.html.
18. Financial Health Network, Financial Health of Women Survey 2021. Administered by SSRS to the SSRS Opinion Panel.
19. Financial Health Network, Financial Health of Women Survey 2021. Administered by SSRS to the SSRS Opinion Panel.
20. Labor force participation rates include individuals that are unemployed but looking for work, and therefore attached to the labor force, full time employed, and part-time employed. Participation rates for parents are defined for anyone who is living with their own children under the age of 18 in their household. The definition for children includes biological children, step-children, and adopted children.
21. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, “Labor Force Participation Rates,” https://www.dol.gov/agencies/wb/data/latest-annual-data/labor-force-participation-rates.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, “The Economics Daily, Labor force participation of mothers and fathers little changed in 2021, remains lower than in 2019” April 27, 2022, https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2022/labor-force-participation-of-mothers-and-fathers-little-changed-in-2021-remains-lower-than-in-2019.htm.
26. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Employment Level statistics for Men and Women” retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/.
27. Ibid.
28. Amy Royce and Amy Matsui, “Unsupported: Undervinetsment in the Care Economy Drives Gender and Racial Wealth Gaps,” American Bar Association, January 06, 2023, https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/wealth-disparities-in-civil-rights/unsupported/.
29. Haley Swenson and Rebecca Gale, “The State of U.S. Mothers in 2022,” New America, May 3, 2022, https://www.newamerica.org/better-life-lab/blog/the-state-of-us-mothers-in-2022/.
30. “Caregiving in the United States 2020,” AARP & National Alliance for Caregiving, May 14, 2020, https://www.aarp.org/ppi/info-2020/caregiving-in-the-united-states.html.
31. Juliana Menasce Horowitz, “More than half of Americans in their 40s are ‘sandwiched’ between an aging parent and their own children,” Pew Research Center, April 8, 2022, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/04/08/more-than-half-of-americans-in-their-40s-are-sandwiched-between-an-aging-parent-and-their-own-children/.
32. “Caregiving in the United States 2020,” AARP & National Alliance for Caregiving, May 14, 2020, https://www.aarp.org/ppi/info-2020/caregiving-in-the-united-states.html.
33. See discussion on social security, below.
34. Amanda Barroso and Anna Brown, “Gender pay gap in U.S. held steady in 2020,” Pew Research Center, May 25, 2021, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/05/25/gender-pay-gap-facts/.
35. Bleiweis, Frye, & Khattar, “Women of Color and the Wage Gap,” Center for American Progress, November 17, 2021, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/women-of-color-and-the-wage-gap/.
36. Throughout this report we use the terms latina and hispanic women. When a data source uses a specific term, that is the term we use. When not referencing a specific data source we use the term latina to refer to women who may identify as latina or hispanic. Additionally, we aim to be inclusive and want to note that latina can include transgender and gender non-conforming individuals who identify with the experiences of women and mothers that are described in this report.
37. “Gender Pay Differences: The Pay Gap for Federal Workers has Continued to Narrow, but Better Quality Data on Promotions are Needed,” Government Accountability Office, December 03, 2020, https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-21-67.
38. Author’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data found that in 2022, 8 percent of men in the labor force, over the age of 25, were working part-time, compared to 18 percent of women.
39. Goldin, Pekkala Kerr & Olivetti, “When the Kids Grow Up: Women’s Employment and Earnings across the Family Cycle,” NBER, August 2022, https://www.nber.org/papers/w30323.
40. Ibid.
41. Ibid.
42. Hartley et al., “A Lifetime’s Worth of Benefits: The Effects of Affordable, High-quality Child Care on Family Income, the Gender Earnings Gap, and Women’s Retirement Security,” National Women’s Law Center & Center on Poverty & Social Policy – Columbia University, March 2021, https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/A-Lifetimes-Worth-of-Benefits-_FD.pdf.
43. Li, Zhe and Huston, Barry. 2022. “Social Security: Potential Impacts of Changes in Computation Years. (R47330.)” The Congressional Research Service.
44. Ibid.
45. Greene, Meghan, Jess McKay and Andrew Warren. 2022. “The Gender Gap in Financial Health: Identifying Barriers and Opportunities for Improving Women’s Financial Health.” https://finhealthnetwork.org/research/gender-gap-in-financial-health/.
46. Li, Zhe and Davies, Paul. 2022. “Income for the Population Aged 65 and Older: Evidence from the Health Retirement Study. (R47341)” The Congressional Research Service.
47. Ibid.
48. Haley Swenson and Rebecca Gale, “The State of U.S. Mothers in 2022,” New America, May 3, 2022, https://www.newamerica.org/better-life-lab/blog/the-state-of-us-mothers-in-2022/.
49. “The Growing Gap in Life Expectancy by Income: Recent Evidence and Implications for the Social Security Retirement Age,” Congressional Research Service, July 6, 2021, https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R44846.
50. Ibid.
51. Hartley et al., “A Lifetime’s Worth of Benefits: The Effects of Affordable, High-quality Child Care on Family Income, the Gender Earnings Gap, and Women’s Retirement Security,” National Women’s Law Center & Center on Poverty & Social Policy – Columbia University, March 2021, https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/A-Lifetimes-Worth-of-Benefits-_FD.pdf; “Retirement Security: Older Women Report Facing a Financially Uncertain Future,” U.S. Government Accountability Office, July 2020, https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-20-435.pdf.
52. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, “Poverty: Literature Summary,” https://health.gov/healthypeople/priority-areas/social-determinants-health/literature-summaries/poverty.
53. Kashen & Novello, “Care Matters: A Report Card for Care Policies in the States,” The Century Foundation, September 22, 2021, https://tcf.org/content/report/care-matters-a-report-card-for-care-policies-in-the-states/.
54. Hartley et al., “A Lifetime’s Worth of Benefits: The Effects of Affordable, High-quality Child Care on Family Income, the Gender Earnings Gap, and Women’s Retirement Security,” National Women’s Law Center & Center on Poverty & Social Policy – Columbia University, March 2021, https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/A-Lifetimes-Worth-of-Benefits-_FD.pdf.
55. H.R. 7 – Paycheck Fairness Act, 117th Congress. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/7
56. Marina Zhavoronkova, “Meeting the Moment: Equity and Job Quality in the Public Workforce Development System,” Center for American Progress, February 17, 2022, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/meeting-the-moment-equity-and-job-quality-in-the-public-workforce-development-system/; Kashen, Burris, & Valle-Gutierrez, “Industrial Policy Requires Care Infrastructure Investments,” The Century Foundation, December 19, 2022, https://tcf.org/content/commentary/industrial-policy-requires-care-infrastructure-investments/.
57. S.1955 – Social Security Caregiver Credit Act of 2021, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/1955/text.
58. Benjamin W. Veghte et al., Designing Universal Family Care: State-Based Social Insurance Programs for Early Child Care and Education, Paid Family and Medical Leave, and Long-Term Services and Supports, National Academy of Social Insurance, 2019, https:// universalfamilycare.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/DesigningUniversal-Family-Care_Digital-Version_FINAL.pdf.
59. Kashen & Knackstedt, “How Three States Made COVID-Relief Investments in Improving Home- and Community-Based Services,” The Century Foundation, September 15, 2022, https://tcf.org/content/report/how-three-states-made-covid-relief-investments-in-improving-home-and-community-based-services/.

Tags: gender gap, gender pay gap, retirement, retirement security