African American women share with other women and with African American men characteristics that shape their beneficiary status under the Social Security system, as well as their views of the retirement income program. Like other women, African American women live more years than African American men and thus receive retirement benefits from Social Security for a longer period than their male counterparts. In addition, African American women and women of other racial/ ethnic groups benefit from the progressive formula used to calculate Social Security retirement benefits, which provides lower-wage earners a higher percentage of their earnings relative to higher-wage earners. Women disproportionately benefit from the use of this formula, since they dominate the ranks of low-wage lifetime earners due to frequent employment in temporary and part-time jobs.

Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies National Opinion Poll of African American Adults About Social Security and Wealth, conducted in late 2005, found that African American men and African American women also shared many views about the Social Security system. e poll, which included 850 African Americans ages 18 years and older, found that African American men and African American women alike doubt that Social Security will meet all of their financial needs during retirement. Neither group reported substantial personal savings and investments to close the anticipated retirement income gap. us, the retirement years for African Americans may not be golden, but instead may be rife with financial insecurity.

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Publication date: June 2006