Women more likely than men to face poverty during retirement

While experts cite a pay gap as a major cause for retirement insecurity, other factors play a role, from single parenthood and divorce to the fact that women typically live longer than men.

Joan Entmacher, vice president for family economic security at the National Women's Law Center, says "the solution to the retirement (funding) crisis starts with the earnings and wage gap."

Entmacher says women are more likely to take on caregiving responsibilities, which increases the likelihood they will end up working part-time jobs, often for lower wages, and without benefits such as pensions, sick leave and health care.

Starting with the Johnson administration's "War on Poverty" in 1964, and the creation of safety-net programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, poverty rates among both men and women have been falling steadily.

"The poverty rate is a deceptive number, it doesn't reflect the money they (men and women) need to actually exist," says Jennifer Brown, manager of research at the National Institute on Retirement Security. 

According to UCLA's Elder Index, a measure of the cost for housing, food, transport and health care, for a 65-year-old renter, the base cost pay for these needs is $24,024 and growing.

EDITOR'S NOTE — Adam Allington is studying aging and workforce issues as part of a 10-month fellowship at The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which joins NORC's independent research and AP journalism.