Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 10, 1990 TAG: 9005100127
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"Retired women workers average only 76 cents in benefits for every dollar paid to retired male workers," League president Lou Glasse said at a news conference launching the league's 1990 Mother's Day program.
To the right of the speakers, a chart showed the difference in Social Security benefits. To the left an easel held a poster that said, "For men, they created retirement plans, medical benefits, profit sharing and gold watches. For women, they created Mother's Day."
Social Security Administration estimates published in the report show that, on average, women receive $458 a month in Social Security benefits, while men receive $627.
The gender difference also is apparent in private pensions: Women's benefits were only 73 percent the level of men's in 1974; by 1987 that ratio fell to 58 percent, the study said.
Women who take time off to have a child or take care of an ill spouse are unfairly penalized, Glasse said, because Social Security benefits are calculated on an assumed work span of 35 years. If a worker has fewer years of employment, zeros are calculated in for the years missed, substantially reducing benefits.
"Our retirement programs continue to reward male work patterns, favor marriage and penalize care giving, divorce, early retirement, long life and two-earner families," she said.
According to the report, Social Security and most pension plans favor a type of family - a paid man, an unpaid woman and their children - which describes less than 10 percent of today's families.
"With the baby-boom generation just 20 years from retirement, escalating distortions in retirement incomes for men and women will become a political hot potato of immense proportions in the years to come," the report said.
"The poorest person is still an older woman," said Rep. Mary Rose Oakar, D-Ohio, who has sponsored a group of bills that would change eligibility requirements for pension and Social Security benefits to close the benefits gap.
"It's clear that we need to make some fundamental changes in our nation's retirement income programs to remove the biases which exist against women," said New Jersey Democrat Bill Hughes, chairman of the House Aging Subcommittee on Retirement Income and Employment, which will conduct a hearing on May 22 to address the problems retired women face.
by CNB