The gender income gap remains alive and well. Just ask older women collecting Social Security.
Women, who make up more than half (55%) of Social Security recipients ages 62 and up, on average collect $5,254 less annually than men, according to a FinanceBuzz analysis of the government’s latest data. Nationally, women receive an average of $1,760 monthly in Social Security, $438 less than the $2,198 men receive on average.
The disparity means looming Social Security benefits cuts in 2032 would more deeply impact women, who already collect less than men each year.
“Older women are far more likely than men to rely on Social Security to meet their basic needs,” said Courtney Anderson, social insurance legal fellow at the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC). “Policymakers must strengthen and expand ‒ not weaken and cut ‒ Social Security.”
USA TODAY reached out to the Social Security Administration for comment.
Already, women are more likely than men to live in poverty. Between 2023 and 2024, the poverty rate jumped to 16.2% for older women from 15.0% while remaining unchanged at 13.5% for older men, NWLC said.
Poverty worsens with age. Among all people age 65 and older, women 80 and older had the highest poverty rate of 21.0% in 2024.
By status, single women were worse off. Among women age 65 and older, single women (widowed, divorced, separated, or never married) had a poverty rate of 21.4%, compared with 10.9% for married women in the same age group, NWLC said.
“These poverty rates would be far higher without Social Security, which has protected millions of older women from falling into poverty,” NWLC said in a report. “In 2024, Social Security lifted 20.0 million people age 65 and older out of poverty as measured by the Supplemental Poverty Measure, of whom nearly 11.4 million were older women, compared to over 8.6 million older men.”
Since Social Security is calculated by how much workers earned during peak earning years, the gender pay gap carries over into retirement, analysts said.
According to the U.S. Census‘ latest 2024 data, median earnings for American women working full time are only 83% of those of their male counterparts.
“That number has been steadily improving in recent decades, but still represents a major gap in pay and career earnings between men and women,” wrote Josh Koebert, senior content marketer, in the FinanceBuzz report. “Unfortunately, the impact of that divide continues to be felt long after women have retired from the workforce.”
Other reasons contributing to the gap, he said, include:
The Social Security gender gap can vary dramatically from state to state, “shaped by factors such as local labor market histories and dominant regional industries,” the study said.
Places with the smallest gap are:
States with the largest gap have economies historically dominated by male-concentrated industries like energy, agriculture, mining and manufacturing, “where higher wages boosted the lifetime earnings, and therefore the Social Security benefits, of male workers for decades,” Koebert said.
States with the largest Social Security gender gap are:
Closing these gaps “starts with building retirement savings independent of Social Security,” Koebert said.
Some of those steps include starting to save as young as possible to take advantage of compound growth, maximizing 401(k) contributions to receive company matches, considering Roth accounts to save on taxes later and keeping debt to a minimum, experts said.
Medora Lee is a money, markets, and personal finance reporter at USA TODAY. You can reach her at mjlee@usatoday.com and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday.