Linking Benefits to Marital Status: Race and Social Security in the US

Abstract

In the US, marital status is more important than work history in determining economic security for many older women. Two-thirds of older women in the US receive spouse or widow Social Security benefits. These benefits generally require recipients to be currently married or to have had a ten-year marriage. Declining marriage rates, coupled with shorter marriages, dramatically change the distributional impact of these benefits on each cohort as they become eligible for Social Security. This paper uses June 1985, 1990, and 1995 CPS supplemental data to trace the decline in marital rates for women from five birth cohorts. We find that the proportion of persons who will be eligible as spouses or widows is decreasing modestly for whites and Hispanics, but dramatically for African Americans. This growing race gap in marital rates suggests that older black women will be particularly unlikely to qualify for these benefits.

Keywords:

• Social Security
• gender
• race
• marital status
• economic security

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We appreciate the very detailed data preparation performed by Pam Herd and the analysis run by both Herd and Caroline Cochran. We thank Martha Bonney for her word-processing assistance. The research reported herein was performed pursuant to a grant by the US Social Security Administration (SSA) to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, Grant No. 10-P-98357-1-05.

Notes

JEL Codes: H550, J180

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Madonna Harrington Meyer

JEL Codes: H550, J180