08.05.20
How to Improve Women’s Retirement Savings: Brookings
by: Ginger Szala
A Brookings Gender Series paper recommends several policy changes that could help improve women's retirement savings. “Public policies that aim to boost women’s status in retirement should focus on the ways women participate in the labor market and in wealth accumulation programs as well as on specific retirement programs and benefits,” authors Grace Enda and William Gale write in the paper, "How Does Gender Equality Affect Women in Retirement?" There are several reasons for women earning less over their lifetimes, including interrupted careers due to caregiving or childbearing, or part-time or low-wage work to maintain flexibility for those responsibilities, the paper states. As women make up a majority of those in the workforce not covered by an employer-sponsored plan, Enda and Gale call for the adoption of a nationwide automatic IRA program that could make them "eligible to participate in a tax-preferred workplace retirement program."
Read the full article on Think Advisor.