Some Iowa women went on “strike” today on this International Women’s Day to call attention to the need for gender equality.
Catherine Collinson, president of the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, says their annual survey finds few women in Iowa or nationwide think they’ll be able to retire without sacrifices.
“Our findings are pretty scary in that only 10% of working women are very confident they’ll be able to someday retire with a comfortable lifestyle,” Collinson says, “just one in ten.” Collinson says women face challenges like having to take time out of the workforce to become caregivers to children, to parents, or both.
“We are facing an uphill battle when it comes to saving and planning for retirement,” she says. “Women continue to earn less than men and lower earnings means we have less available to save.” The study showed the average woman’s retirement savings is at $34,000 and her average emergency savings is only $2,000. The report finds many people are planning to work longer and retire older, but to do so, Collinson says they need to accomplish three goals.
“One is, we’ve got to take care of ourselves and our health,” she says. “We’ve got to keep our job skills up to date, and lastly, we need to have a backup plan if retirement happens unexpectedly.”
Studies of the so-called gender pay gap find women in the U.S. make 77 cents for every dollar made by men.
(Thanks to Karla James)