TIAA and Emily Oster on Equal Retirement for Mothers

Emily Oster is an author and Professor of Economics. TIAA ranked No. 8 on The Fair360, formerly DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list in 2022.

 

TIAA has partnered with Emily Oster and YouGov to research retirement investing in relation to mothers.

The gender gap in retirement savings is 30% — despite the longer life expectancy of women.

Mothers typically retire with less income than men or single women. Many working women with children turn down or aren’t offered higher paying positions due to the demands of childcare. Further, salaries are typically put toward childcare expenses rather than retirement savings.

According to a survey from approximately 1,500 mothers, working women with children lack awareness of retirement savings as a key financial decision, lack action in saving for retirement and lack support from firms to help enable informed choices about retiring with children.

However, upon learning of the retirement gap for women, 43.9% of mothers with children under 18 reported that they would consider starting a retirement fund for their child to break the cycle for the next generation.

“There is a huge opportunity to motivate financial change at the time of childbirth, both for parents and in investments they make for their children,” wrote Oster in the ParentDate report. “The downsides of not saving for retirement are large, but the solutions are likely more attainable than many people fear. By highlighting the miracle of compounding, and the way that small changes can yield large benefits, we can prompt meaningful behavioral change.”

Click here to read the full report by Emily Oster and TIAA.

 

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