title: Retirement-age women and pensions: findings from the New Beneficiary Survey.
abstract: This article examines the extent of employer-sponsored pension receipt and the amounts of pension benefits among a cohort of retirement-age women interviewed in the New Beneficiary Survey. These women reported relatively low levels of pension protection. Only 27 percent were receiving a pension in late 1982, either from their own employment or as survivors. This was one-half the rate of current pension receipt among a comparable cohort of men. An additional 17 percent of the women were expecting pensions of their own or had potential survivor protection through their husbands' pensions. Among those receiving a pension, women reported median monthly benefits of $250, compared with $460 among men. Pension benefits were a fairly important source of income for these women, particularly those who were unmarried. Almost one-half of the unmarried recipients depended on their pensions for one-third or more of their total incomes, and without their pension income 11 percent would have been below poverty income levels.
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Woods
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008393:Marriage; D008875:Middle Aged; D010415:Pensions; D011203:Poverty; D012179:Retirement; D012847:Single Person; D014930:Women; D014931:Women, Working