Women and Pension Reform: Economic Insecurity and Old Age

Summer, 2002

35 J. Marshall L. Rev. 673

LENGTH: 17506 words

SYMPOSIUM: THE FUTURE OF EMPLOYEE BENEFITS LAW: A JOHN MARSHALL LAW REVIEW SYMPO-SIUM: WOMEN AND PENSION REFORM: ECONOMIC INSECURITY AND OLD AGE

NAME: Lorraine Schmall*

BIO: * Lorraine Schmall, Professor of Law, Northern Illinois University College of Law.

LEXISNEXIS SUMMARY:

... One measure of economic security is participation in a pension plan. ... Those of Hispanic descent are slightly over-represented among low wage workers, constituting 10% of the female work force, but 14% of the low-paid female work force; for example, over one-half of female Hispanic workers are in low wage jobs, which constitutes among females about 10% of the work force and 14% of the low paid workers. ... Discrimination accounts for some of the differences in employment pay, regardless of whether it is directed against white women, women of color, older women, women from different ethnic backgrounds, women with disabilities, or immigrant women. ... Although the pension laws are gender neutral, inequities in the workplace and in family care giving roles mean that women continue to be less likely to be covered by pension plans and to receive benefits. ... Workers in the service industry now compose nearly 33% of the private sector wage and salaried labor force, and an even greater percentage of these workers are employed in firms sponsoring a pension plan (56%). ...

TEXT:

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One measure of economic security is participation in a pension plan. Despite all the talk about Social Security in-solvency and fears of aged poverty, over the last fifteen years, the private supplemental pension coverage rates have remained fairly stable; just short of 50% for all workers. n1 However, alleging that one-half of all American employees participate in pension plans is less than an ingenuous statement; it is the ultimate essentialist conclusion. Most recipients are men. Most women are white. Accordingly, most women who get pensions are probably white. Through pension coverage through their spouses, some women have in effect two pensions. However, most women have no private pen-sions. The "average" pension-holder connotes and denotes a majority - white and male - while the many subsets of women, divided by race, ethnicity, social and economic class, and age, continue to fare poorly.

The things that women do, and all the ways in which they work, net them very little in the way of pensions. n2 They will not be [*674] financially secure when they are old, n3 unless they are already wealthy. Women of color are the least likely to have any hope of financial security as they age, n4 as pension participation and coverage vary enor-mously by race and ethnicity. n5 Typically, more men in each of those categories have pensions than their female coun-terparts, but it is difficult to find reports of these differences. While the data is available from The U.S. Census Bureau, race and ethnicity are not the categorical bases for gender differences. It is merely a way to hide the problem.

No society can develop without planning for its elderly, not owing to respect, fondness, or pity, but because old age typically signifies increased dependency. Growing older is a contingency we can all expect and hope for. However, fair-ly dramatic changes need to occur if women, especially women of color, are to avoid ending their lives in poverty.

In the last political cycle, much was said about ensuring that the benefits of prescription drugs and medical research are available to the elderly. Given the political banter, it seems the [*675] only problems with aging are health-related; yet, few words were devoted to discussing the real problem: elderly poverty. If pensions were discussed at all, it was typically about the increase in their overall economic worth, about privatizing social security, or about how ordinary citizens have (or have not) developed investment savvy. In the wake of the collapse of a large energy company and the resultant loss of all its employees' pensions, Congress had conducted hearings about how to protect self-directed plans. n6 Although there has been heated debate about funding public pensions, their privatization, and exuberance over eco-nomic market advances involving such plans, these discussions must focus on the present status of women and how any reform might affect them. Women lack equal access, opportunity, and remuneration. Further, their continued, unique family responsibilities need to be considered before any changes can be made. Most of the world's citizens are women, but miraculously, they are counted only as part of an average. The number telling their unique stories is horrifying, though more often ignored.

Economic hard times have fallen upon many over the past year. The "go-go" nineties are gone, and the early twen-ty-first century is now a more somber, typical cycle: some highs and some lows. n7 We console ourselves by noting that elderly poverty rates are dropping, that women are entering professions at record levels, and that there are more private investors in the stock market than ever before. In typical government understatement, the Department of Labor notes: "while all workers need to save more for retirement, women face additional challenges because they have lower earn-ings, experience higher job turnover, and are employed in industries with low or no pension coverage." n8 There is a plethora of research regarding the inequity of pensions for women, both in their availability and in their degree. n9 But [*676] understanding and knowledge of the reasons for that discrepancy are essential, so that a remedy can be created without blaming women for embracing their poverty as a matter of choice. n10

Unlike that being researched by critical race scholars, the data I describe here are not hard to discover. I did not need to go to foreign countries and learn languages unknown to the majority of the American people to discover the inequities. They are here, on the Internet, in a newspaper, at family parties, in soup lines, or in nursing homes. Women make less than men during their working lives and therefore have much less than men when they are too old to work. n11 This is because women experience gender discrimination as well as discrimination based on race, national origin, age, disability, and religion. n12 Economists, and those with a [*677] majority view, offer neutral explanations for these differences. There are observable and quantifiable differences