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Social Security Reform: Implications for Women's Retirement Income

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Report Type Reports and Testimonies
Report Date Dec. 31, 1997
Report No. HEHS-98-42
Subject
Summary:

On average, Social Security pays lower retirement benefits to women than to men, primarily because women tend to have lower lifetime earnings. Social Security reforms that would create individual private savings accounts and change the way that benefits are distributed would exacerbate the difference in retirement benefits between men and women. Working women earn less than men, on average, and would have less money to invest in their individual accounts. Also, women are often more cautious investors than men and may be less likely to invest in potentially higher yielding, though riskier, assets such as stocks, a tendency that puts them at risk of accumulating relatively less money in their accounts at retirement. Moreover, even if men and women enter retirement with equal amounts in their individual accounts, women may receive a lower monthly benefit if they buy an individual annuity because it is adjusted for their greater longevity.

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