More than 50% of US mothers have no retirement savings, according to an analysis
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The absence of work to raise children, wage gaps, among others are some of the factors that predominate over mothers in terms of the lack of savings for their retirement
A recent analysis by The Century Foundation found that more than 50% of mothers in the United States do not have enough retirement savings, compared to 30% of fathers who do not have retirement savings.
In this sense, Laura Valle Gutierrez, member of the Century Foundation pointed out that “when you see that half of the mothers do not have retirement savings, that is a really shocking statistic,” she said. Research reveals a huge gap between moms and dads when it comes to financial preparation for retirement
According to the study, mothers have less chance of saving, this is due to multiple factors such as; stop working to raise children, not have extra income, the gender wage gap, among others, which undoubtedly affect Social Security benefits, which take into account the highest income of a person for 35 years of work.
The data showed that 73% of fathers with full-time jobs have a retirement account, compared to 66% of mothers. In this case, only 23% of mothers between the ages of 50 and 64 have more than $100,000 saved for retirement.
These data give a different perspective for the future. The director of the retirement savings project at Pew Charitable Trusts, John Scott assured that “a lot of these retirement homes will need welfare,” he told CBS News.
For Gutiérrez, “moms are really the ones paying the price for a system that does not adequately value care work (..) they are dedicating their entire lives to caring for and working for their families, and when it comes to retirement, they just do not they are prepared and cannot safely retire,” he said.
Therefore, to celebrate Mother's Day there will be no better gift than contributing to your 401(k) or IRA plan.