April 02, 2019

On Equal Pay Day, Warren joins Murray, Schakowsky, Underwood to Announce Bill to Address Retirement Gap, Strengthen Women’s Financial Futures

Women lose over $400,000 over a forty-year career due to the wage gap, and are 80 percent more likely than men to face poverty in retirement; Bill changes minimum participation standards for long-term, part-time workers—most of whom are women—to expand access to retirement plans; Legislation extends spousal protections against one spouse undermining a couple’s retirement resources without the other’s knowledge and consent; Bill includes grants to help low-income women and survivors of domestic a

 
Washington, DC – Today, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) joined Senators Patty Murray (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.), in announcing that they will introduce the Women’s Retirement Protection Act of 2019 (WRPA), legislation to address the retirement gap and bolster women’s financial security. According to the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS), women of retirement age typically have an income that is three-fourths that of men, and they are 80 percent more likely than men to be impoverished. Women not only have fewer resources than men to support themselves in retirement, they also tend to live longer than men, meaning they must make their smaller retirement savings stretch over a longer period of time.

WRPA includes a set of solutions to address the retirement gap and some of the challenges that disproportionately affect women as they plan for their financial futures. The legislation would strengthen consumer protections to safeguard retirement savings; improve access to retirement savings plans for long-term, part-time workers; increase access to information about retirement and savings tools; and help low-income women and survivors of domestic abuse get the retirement benefits they are entitled to following a divorce or legal separation.

WRPA would:

  • Strengthen consumer protections to safeguard retirement savings by expanding existing spousal protections for defined benefit plans to defined contributions plans to prevent one spouse from making decisions that might undermine a couple’s retirement resources without the other’s knowledge and consent;
  • Expand access to retirement savings plans by changing the minimum participation standards for long-term, part-time workers—most of whom are women;
  • Increase access to information about retirement and savings tools by providing grants for community-based organizations to help provide information about financial tools to women who are of working or retirement age; and
  • Support low-income women and survivors of domestic abuse seeking retirement benefits by providing grants for community-based organizations that assist these women in obtaining qualified domestic relations orders, the legal instruments that allow for the division of retirement benefits—assuring they receive the retirement benefits they are entitled to following a divorce or legal separation.

The Senate co-sponsors of the Women’s Retirement Protection Act of 2019 also include, Senators Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-Nev.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.).

The legislation has also been endorsed by AARP, National Women’s Law Center, Pension Rights Center, and the Society for Financial Education and Professional Development.

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