U.S. Sens. Baldwin, Murray, Underwood: Lead bill to protect women’s retirement security

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Representative Lauren Underwood (D-IL-14) introduced the Women’s Retirement Protection Act of 2023, legislation to help women overcome barriers that systematically set them back from achieving financial security in retirement.

Data shows women’s financial futures are consistently undermined by factors like unequal pay and time out of the workforce for caregiving duties, which make it more difficult to adequately save for retirement. According to a 2020 report from the Government Accountability Office, they may also be prevented from securing the retirement resources they are entitled to following a divorce due to barriers like complex rules and legal fees. These factors can have a devastating impact on women’s ability to retire with dignity. Women, age 65 and older, are much more likely to live in poverty, compared to men in the same age group. In 2022, women’s median retirement income was 83 percent of men’s retirement income. And, according to the National Women’s Law Center, the average woman loses more than $400,000 over a forty-year career due to pay inequality, requiring women to work for almost a decade longer than their male counterparts to make up the gender wage gap.

The Women’s Retirement Protection Act would address some of these challenges by extending critical protections to women’s retirement security and providing enhanced tools to ensure women can better prepare for retirement. Specifically, the Women’s Retirement Protection Act would:

• Strengthen consumer protections to safeguard retirement savings – For many working families, their 401(k) plan is often their largest asset aside from their home, but under current law, one spouse could take a distribution or a loan from the plan without the other spouse’s knowledge or consent. The Women’s Retirement Protection Act would provide spousal protections similar to those that are available for defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans like a 401(k).
• Increase financial literacy – The Women’s Retirement Protection Act would enhance and bolster women’s financial literacy by providing grants for community-based organizations to help provide information and financial tools to women who are of working or retirement age.
• Support low-income women and survivors of domestic abuse seeking retirement benefits – The Women’s Retirement Protection Act would provide grants for community-based organizations that assist them in obtaining qualified domestic relations orders, the legal instruments that allow for the division of retirement benefits—assuring they receive the retirement benefits they are entitled to following a divorce or legal separation.

A one-pager on this bill is available here. Full text of this legislation is available here.