How to Fight the Retirement Gender Gap

When it comes to having enough retirement income, women have a distinct disadvantage, beginning with wages that continue to lag their male counterparts. Despite improvements, women still make just 80 cents for every dollar men make doing the same work, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

And, of course, that pay gap could stretch well into retirement, according to Prudential research, which found that with lower salaries, women receive less in Social Security benefits and accumulate 32% less in retirement savings than men. Worse, nearly half of women say they have no retirement savings at all.

At the same time, women also carry more debt. Student debt is particularly troubling to graduate with excessive debt levels that are 10% or more of their gross monthly income, according to Prudential's 2019 report. And more than half of women report other types of non-mortgage debt as well.