If any men read this and say, “me too”, I’d like to hear their stories. I have more than one friend who has worked all their lives. Raised their children on ‘women’s wages’ which we all know are much lower than men’s.
When they reach social security age, they are single and must depend on what they have earned in social security, or take a early amount off an ex-husband, or a mountain of other reasons. One, I’ll call Abby draws $450 a month in social security.
She saved a bit of money, all between the time her three children were grown and the time when they needed mom’s help again. However Abby is one of the lucky ones, sort of. She lives in a very nice church owned apartment building for women. Since this is a place where women stay until they die, the younger tenants (age 65 to no longer able) can work by checking on other tenants making sure they are still alive and calling ambulances in the middle of the night..
Lots of women were hard working waitresses. They probably didn’t declare all their tips, which wouldn’t have made much difference, but did help feed their kids.
Others, like one I’ll call Betty, even rose to management of places like drug stores, in the end their life long earnings didn’t give them enough social security plus pension to live on.
Today many pensions are savings where the employee and employer put in equal shares. When you’re earning a third less than a man and have a hundred percent more children to support, they don’t end up with much of a pension. It isn’t unusual for a woman’s pension and social security to equal less than a thousand dollars a month.
No all women end up poor. Another friend Carol has a pension, again management at a third less than a man makes, but she also has a husband who earned an excellent salary. They were able to save a good bit of money. Life was perfect until he got sick, the list things that like MS, Parkinsons, and Alzheimers, goes on and on.
Today they are in their seventies, he’s in a wheel chair and can’t do anything for himself. She can’t lift him. Baths are sponge only. He wears diapers, which I’ll leave to your imagination.
She has enough money to pay someone to come in 4 or 5 hours a day during the week. Carol is on her own the rest of the time. Getting someone to live in (room and board added to the money would make a reasonable pay check) Finding a responsible person able bodied enough to lift the husband for what she can offer, is harder than you think.
Carol takes loving care of her husband, but is no longer able to give him the care he needs. A nursing home would take so much of what they have that there would no longer be enough money for her to live on.
This is an election year, a good time to tell all the candidates how important social security is to all of us.
Women not only need, but work as hard and are worth wages equal to men.
Playing around with pensions such as matching dollar investments are too hard for most, because there are priorities like children that keep them from investing that extra dollar. Companies need to return to a basis of how long you worked there and how much you earned.
Some candidates won’t listen. You shouldn’t vote for him. Other candidates will listen. You might think about voting for her. The two most important things are, 1.Tell the candidates what you want. 2. Vote