All federal employees need training, and most would benefit from experienced assistance as they plan for retirement. This is true at every stage of their career, regardless of age or gender. Today I want to highlight some issues that are specific to women in federal service.

According to the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement, there are five challenges many women face when planning for their future. Here is a modified version of that list that may affect you as a woman in federal service:

1. Women live longer than men.

• Longevity risk is real. Because women often live longer, this means that if you are currently married, one day it could be “just one of us” instead of “just two of us.” This means a Social Security benefit will stop and the full retirement benefit will become a survivor benefit, generally a little more than 50% of the benefit paid while the spouse was alive. If you are single, retirement savings will need to last longer due to the expected longer life expectancy.
• Of the 408,033 survivors of deceased federal employees, 361,739 are widows and only 27,410 are widowers. The average monthly pension payable to a widow in 2022 was $1,831/month at an average age of 81.4 years. The remaining survivors were former spouses, children, and those survivors who had an insurable interest in the retiree.

2. Women earn less than men during their working years.

• According to the Federal News Network, the federal government is already one step ahead of the private sector when it comes to pay equity. According to 2022 labor market data, the national gender pay gap is 16%, while the federal pay gap is 5.6%. In other words, in the federal workforce, women earn about 94 cents for every dollar men earn. That’s better than the national rate of 84 cents for every dollar men earn, and is a significant improvement from the 24.5% pay gap in 1992.
• According to 2023 OPM data analyzed by the Partnership for Public Service, the overall federal workforce was 55% men and 45% women, compared to 53% men and 47% women in the U.S. labor force. In general, women are employed at the lower pay levels, significantly more than their male counterparts. Women made up the majority of the federal workforce in positions GS-3 through GS-9. Notably, 73% of GS-6 employees are female. Men made up a majority of the workforce above the GS-10 level, the SES, and in positions outside the GS pay scale. Only 39% of SES positions are filled by women. As the pay level increased, the percentage of positions filled by women decreased.

3. Women receive significantly lower pensions than men

• Nearly 72% of monthly retirement benefits in 2022 were below $4,000/month (CSRS and FERS combined). At least 55.5% of these were paid to men. However, of the 0.2% of monthly retirement benefits paid above $7,000/month, 70.1% of these benefits were paid to men.
• As women age, they become more vulnerable to poverty. The poverty rate for all women aged 65 and over is about 12%, with just over one in ten women living in poverty. But for widowed Among women aged 65 and over, the poverty rate is significantly higher: about 51% have to live on less than $22,000 a year.

4. Women have fewer years of working life.

• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 67.9% of men ages 25 and older were employed in 2022, compared to 55.4% of women.
• Although the employment rate of men is higher than that of women at every level of education, the gap between men and women narrows as the level of education increases.

5. Women are more likely to work part-time.

• In January 2024, 89,960 federal employees worked less than full-time (part-time, temporary employees and 193 employees in partial retirement).
• In federal service, part-time work obviously reduces an employee’s salary, but it also reduces retirement income, the ability to contribute to the TSP, and the income used to calculate Social Security retirement benefits. In addition, part-time federal employees pay a larger share of the government for their health insurance and have less annual leave and sick leave entitlement per pay period.
• According to the National Women’s Law Center:
  • Nationwide, more than 32.1 million people (about twice the population of New York) work part-time—about 22% of the workforce.
  • Almost six in ten part-time workers (59.1%) are women. In 2021, there were over 1 million fewer women working part-time than in 2019, before the pandemic began.
  • Women are about 1.6 times more likely to work part-time than men: 27.9% of all working women work part-time, compared to 17.2% of all working men.

Here are some resources to learn more about how to stay financially secure after retirement:

5 things every woman should know about Social Security

Social security for women

What every woman should know about social security

5 things mothers should tell their daughters about money and retirement

Financial tasks for the coming decades – Slides

and … the wage gap is linked to the pension gap!