A few years ago, our founder and CEO, Kirsten Curry, came across an interesting statistic: women-owned and led businesses are the fastest growing new business segments in the U.S, experiencing 114% growth, 2.5 times the national average over the past decade. As both a female business owner and a retirement plan professional, Kirsten wondered how well other women business owners are preparing for retirement compared to their male counterparts.
“There are plenty of ongoing conversations about the current financial affairs of women, including the pay gap, but little conversation about the long-term effect, the retirement savings gap,” Kirsten said.
Kirsten explained that women business owners and leaders still trail woefully behind their male counterparts when it comes to retirement savings. For example, on average, women’s median retirement income is only 58% of men’s median retirement income.
When she couldn’t find any answers to her questions about how women are preparing for retirement, Kirsten decided to survey men and women business owners and leaders of non-profit organizations directly to find some answers.
The result was our first annual Leading Retirement Solutions Retirement Gap Report which we published last year. Today, we are releasing the findings of the second annual report which is based on 207 responses to a survey we distributed nationally until July 1, 2018. Respondents from 37 states participated in the survey, representing a diverse swath of racial identities, industries, regional locations and genders.
The report shows a number of interesting trends suggesting that women business owners and leaders continue to lag behind their male counterparts when it comes to saving for retirement.
Here are a few highlights:
- 14% of women business leaders are not saving for retirement at all, which is 4% more than last year.
- 80% of women business leaders are participating in 401(k)/403(b)/457 plans compared to 92% of male business leaders.
- Women business leaders face barriers to saving for retirement. For example, women business leaders who support dependents not only struggle to reinvest in their business, but 20% are not saving for retirement at all. When it comes to male business leaders, none of them mentioned difficulties supporting dependents while saving for retirement.
The 2019 Retirement Gap Report offers many more insights into differences between the way women and men business owners and leaders save for retirement. Get the full report by following the button below:
At LRS, we are leading the retirement preparedness conversation with and for women business owners and leaders. We are tackling the retirement preparedness gap with data driven saving solutions. Most importantly, we want women business owners and leaders to feel financially empowered; they are centers of influence and have immense opportunity to help their employees do the same.
If you'd like to contribute to this year's Retirement Gap study you can take our survey here!
For more tips and information regarding retirement plans, contact us.
