The Social Security Administration (SSA) regularly publishes information on the “average” Social Security beneficiary, but statistics vary substantially among individual beneficiaries, particularly when men and women are compared.
In compiling Social Security data, historical inequalities between the sexes in terms of time in the labor force, earnings, and lifespan all play a role. Here’s a short glance at how some of the most influential figures in the Social Security program look when broken down by sex, using data from the SSA, the Department of Labor (DOL), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Men Earn More Money.
The gender pay gap is the difference between what men and women earn in the workplace, and it has been and continues to exist throughout history. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the wage disparity between men and women in employment also affects Social Security benefits.
According to PayScale’s annual study, the unmanaged gender pay gap in 2022 was 82 cents for every $1 earned by a man. According to data from the SSA, DOL, and BLS, men’s median annual earnings are $56,264, while women’s median annual earnings are $46,332. This corresponds to a 22% advantage for men over women in both cases.
The revenue amount generated while working is a big part of the SSA’s algorithm for calculating payments. Men have higher average wages than women, and thus their Social Security retirement benefits are higher on average. Men also participate in the workforce at a larger rate than women, with 69.2% versus 57.4% in 2019. More men than women working and contributing to Social Security can explain some of the higher-benefit disparities.
When you add everything up, the discrepancies are reasonably striking. In 2020, the average male retired worker will receive a $1,714 monthly Social Security benefit, and that amount was only $1,378 for retired women. That means men earned an extra $336 per month on average, or a stunning 24% more than women, even more than the wage gap between men and women.
More women prefer part-time work compared to Men.
For various reasons, women make up a higher proportion of the part-time workforce than men.
Part-time workers earn less and contribute less to the Social Security system, resulting in lower overall payouts for women.
Women Have A Higher Life Expectancy
Women continue to live longer than males, translating into some intriguing Social Security Administration (SSA) data. Women account for almost 55% of Social Security claimants aged 65 and up, while men account for little under 45%.
Because women live longer than men, this helps balance out the overall Social Security payout amounts over a lifetime. Women draw smaller checks on average than males, but they collect more checks since they live longer.
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