“Gender Retirement Gap” Increasing Amidst Record Stock Market
It has been well documented that COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on both the US and global economies. From sky-high unemployment rates to the shuttering of businesses and wild swings in the stock market, the virus has impacted every economic sector. This burden has disproportionately fallen on women causing an already unbalanced gender pay gap to worsen. With so much attention paid to this, less attention has been paid to the long-term impact of this wage disparity on men vs. women retirement savings.
Rather than surveying workers directly to learn how COVID-19 has impacted their retirement savings, we wanted to go directly to the data.
By reviewing the 401K’s of 59,000 American workers across all 50 states, we discovered that despite unprecedented growth in 401k balances fueled by a robust equities market, the “Gender Retirement Gap” has increased in the past year. In fact, the average woman’s retirement savings have gone from $0.70 for every dollar saved by men to $0.68.
Key findings:
Women had 68 cents saved for retirement to every dollar saved by men.
In the last year, 78% of men increased their retirement portfolio of stocks compared to 51% of females.
Only in 17 states is the Gender Retirement Gap at least within 15% of equal.
In 5 states the average savings by women surpasses that of men.