A woman's retirement crisis: Between caregiving and gender wage gap, can they catch up?
Katherine Gotthardt's husband retired last year, but she doesn't think she'll ever be able to join him.
Gotthardt, 55, works part time at a community newspaper in Virginia for $18 an hour. She also freelances. Gotthardt's husband thinks his retirement pension and savings could support the household, which includes an adult son with autism, she said. But she's not so sure.
"He wants to be able to provide for me," she said. "But is that realistic, in this day and age?"
The thought of being "a drain" on her husband, or of not setting aside substantial funds for her son, weighs on her constantly. Looking back, Gotthardt said she knows how she ended up in this state of financial insecurity. Gotthardt, like many mothers in the U.S., worked part time when her kids were young so she could care for them, missing out on a full salary for several years.
Gotthardt also blames Union Institute and University, a low-residency school based in Cincinnati that closed last year after financial troubles led to federal fines and a forfeited accreditation. She enrolled in a doctoral program at Union in 2000, but never got her degree. Now, Gotthardt said, she's not sure if she still needs to pay back her student loans, which, with interest, ballooned over the years to $200,000.
“I have no idea where I’m at," she said. "I’m almost afraid to ask.”
Gotthardt said she'll likely work until she can't anymore.
“It makes me sad that I know that I am not the only one that feels this kind of pressure," Gotthardt said.
Recent estimates from financial services companies, including Charles Schwab, Schroders and Northwestern Mutual, say the "magic number" to save for retirement is anywhere from $1.2 million to $1.8 million, a goal that's out of reach for many Americans. For women, saving for retirement might seem even more daunting since the gender wage gap has stayed mostly stagnant for the last two decades at 83 cents to the dollar.
Women historically earn less than men and tend to take more time away from work for caregiving duties. Those losses compound over time, putting women at even greater disadvantage when it comes to retirement.
It's not that "women aren't saving as much as men," said Megan Yost, senior vice president and financial wellness expert at Segal, a benefits consulting firm. It's that women don't have as much money to begin with.
A survey conducted in 2024 by the National Institute on Retirement Security found 80% of women who responded believe the United States faces a retirement crisis, and nearly the same amount said the typical worker can't save enough on their own to guarantee a secure retirement.
More women ages 55 to 66 say they have no personal retirement savings compared to men in that age range, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Among the people who do save for retirement, women are less likely than men to have $100,000 or more in personal retirement savings. Retirement security gaps are even larger for women of color, according to the Treasury Department.
There's a wave of employers offering family-friendly benefits to help even the playing field, Yost said. Benefits like paid leave, backup care and catch-up contributions help ensure caregivers who need to step away from work don't fall too far behind their peers when it comes to salary and retirement planning.
Beth Klute, a lifelong Minnesotan who spent 33 years working in public safety, sold most of her belongings and hit the road in 2020. She spent several months in Oceanside, California, in a condo near the beach before moving to San Diego, and then to St. Petersburg, Florida, before reaching Las Vegas.
"I'm having a fabulous time," Klute, 59, said.
Though Klute was eligible for a pension and started saving for her retirement when she was 21, she wasn't always confident she'd be able to enjoy her golden years. Life threw her some unexpected road bumps, including a divorce and her teenage son's stage 4 bone cancer diagnosis.
“I knew that I could have lost so much," she said.
When her son was sick, Klute worried constantly about him, and her bank account. Klute was was able to take a year of paid leave to care for her son through a program that allowed other state employees to donate their extra paid time off to colleagues in need. Once she knew her son was going to get better, she could start thinking about the future again.
"When I retire, I am going to have the time of my life. It was sort of a promise I made to myself and to him, that mom’s going to start living now," she said.
Klute said her son has now been cancer-free for 11 years. He's in graduate school, and she's salsa dancing in Las Vegas.
'When women have children, they do miss out.'
Klute is the exception. According to a report from the National Council on Aging and the Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement, less than half of the more than 1,000 women surveyed reported saving for retirement. About 1 in 3 women said their retirement income or savings will not be enough to pay their monthly bills.
"Historically, the industry hasn’t always spoken to women as proactively as we can," Kate Byrne, head of Vanguard Cash Plus distribution, said.
Pat Archer, 72, retired in early 2019 with about $150,000 in savings. But between moving expenses and medical bills, she said there's nothing left. Archer is diabetic, and for a while, she said her insulin costs were about $700 per month, even with insurance.
The New Hampshire resident worked in accounting most of her life, and said she always knew she made less than her male counterparts.
"But that was something you just accepted" back then, Archer said. "It was just a fact."
Archer didn't think much about retirement in her 20s and 30s. She took a couple of years away from work to care for her kids, and then worked part time as a single mom until she was 33, missing out on a decade of full-time wages.
“It just wasn’t enough, obviously," Archer said. "So, I missed out on a lot. When women have children, they do miss out."
Now, Archer is back to work. She makes $16 an hour working part time as a receptionist at an assisted living facility. Her husband can't work anymore, she said.
Archer knows they are in better shape, financially, than some other people looking to retire. Still, she worries. Archer is doing everything she can to reduce costs.
“By now, things have gotten more and more expensive. I’m doing more and more shopping at the dollar store,” she said.
Start small and take baby steps, financial advisers say
Saving for retirement doesn't have to be an added stressor, Byrne said. Mothers especially might feel overwhelmed by the idea, when financial planning is just one more thing to add to an endless to-do list of doctor's appointments, kids' extracurricular activities and scheduling school pickup and drop-off.
But the worst thing anyone can do, Byrne said, is leave earnings sitting in a bank account.
Getting started on investing can be simple, she said. Anyone can start by sitting down, alone or with a partner, and getting to know their current financial situation. It's a good idea to write down some upcoming costs like a mortgage payment, kids' summer camps and grocery bills. The next step would be to think about long-term goals, including a preferred retirement age.
From there, Byrne said, it's a good idea to save up at least a month's worth of expenses for an emergency fund. She suggests putting that money in a high-yield savings account to earn compounding interest.
Any additional income could be invested for retirement, Byrne said. There's no amount too small to start investing. Klute said she put at least a small amount of money from every one of her paychecks for 33 years into her retirement savings.
If it all feels too overwhelming, Yost said, ask for help. Many employers offer free or low-cost financial advising as a benefit.
A lot of women are afraid of looking incompetent, Klute said, but they shouldn't be. Her advice? Let go of that fear, ask questions and learn as much as possible.
After her son beat cancer, Klute said she hired an executive consultant to advise her on career decisions like finding new opportunities and asking for raises and promotions.
“She gave me that extra push to kind of help me with my confidence," Klute said.
Madeline Mitchell's role covering women and the caregiving economy at Paste BN is supported by a partnership with Pivotal Ventures and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input. Reach Madeline at memitchell@usatoday.com and @maddiemitch_ on X.