Who Cares?

The question of retirement and pensions is currently receiving much attention and understandably so. The economic recession makes it a most compelling subject. Not only have there been job losses, but the recession has also meant that retirement savings have been cut into, as well as pensions which now show their vulnerability. A graying workforce finds itself having to continue working past its planned retirement.

What is missing among much of the current analyses, is a lack of attention being paid to gender differences in pensions and retirement. Though women have made unprecedented gains in their participation in paid work – in Canada now 46% of employed persons are female. But within this, the ages of working women is notable, especially those of the boomer generations – boomers being those born between 1946 and 1964. Those boomer women aged 45-54 in the paid workforce comprise 76% in that age group, up from 46% in 1976. Those aged 55-64 now number 46%, a gain of 30% since 1976.( Women in Canada 5th Edition) Also critical is the inequality in earnings, with women still earning about 72% of what men earn although it is important to recognize that women have increased their participation in such professions in several professional fields, such as medicine and law, for example.

The issue of gender inequality is critical to the issue of retirement, pensions and caregiving. Women still comprise the majority of caregivers, although more men are joining these ranks. In 2007, 57% of women over 45 were caregiving, contrasted to approximately 43% of men. Therefore if we look at the number of boomer-aged women who are in the paid work force we must also consider those who are doing unpaid caregiving work. Using this perspective we can ascertain a clear conflict between these two aspects: paid work and unpaid work.

This conflict has important consequences for retirement, especially that of women. A Canadian study (Pyper,2006)) shows the effect of informal caregiving: 37% of women, contrasted to 24% of men reported they had cut back work hours, or refused a promotion or a job offer because of their informal caregiving. Even more critical, among these midlife caregivers 21% of women aged 45-64 and 11 % of similarly aged men felt caregiving would be one of the reasons for their upcoming retirement. Among those already retired in the same age group, 21% of women and 8% of men acknowledged that family care responsibility was among their reasons for retirement. Thus, in Canada and elsewhere we have large numbers of midlife women in both paid work and doing unpaid work at the same time. Percentages, of course, do not reflect the qualitative aspects of informal caregiving such as stress and the pressures of juggling, though there is the undoubted satisfaction of contributing to the quality of elder’s lives.

Why is this important? Longevity is increasing and with it the growing number of frail elders who will need care. Women in Canada now live to be 82 years, and men 77, with the fastest increasing demographic being women 85 years and older. One report found that living to be 107 will probably not be uncommon in coming decades.

The question of pensions becomes of utmost concern. Canada has an excellent public pension system, but not quite excellent enough. Women’s lower earnings, part time work (29%) and caregiving responsibilities all culminate in lower pensions. In July 2009, Canada Pension Plan (CPP) monthly retirement benefits were $578.22 for men, while women received $368.92.(Distribution of Retirement Pensions,By Age and Gender Table 10,July 2009). Small wonder many Canadian women are afraid of becoming bagladies!

It is important that there is a value given to unpaid caregiving which translates into pensionable benefits. I leave it to economists and actuaries to figure out how to impute value to unpaid caregiving to accomplish this. Meanwhile, I urge those who are concerned, especially midlife women and men similarly affected, to raise their voices with regard to such discrepancies. Canada has some 9 million boomers, almost equally divided between men and women. Size matters, so does gender.

Lillian Zimmerman, B.A., M.S.W., is the author of Baglady or Powerhouse? A Roadmap for Midlife (Boomer) Women, 2009. She is a Research Associate at the Gerontology Research Centre, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver B.C.