Average Social Security Benefits . Reliance on Social Security . In contrast, Social Security benefits comprise only 36 percent of unmarried elderly men's retirement income, and only 33 percent of elderly couples' income. Several aspects of the current program help women. Social Security provides a guaranteed, inflation-protected benefit that lasts as long as you live.
Women tend to live longer than men, potentially exhausting other sources of income.
The current benefit formula provides a higher proportion of pre-retirement earnings to lower earning workers who are more often women. Social Security provides dependent benefits to spouses, divorced spouses, elderly widows, and widows with small children. Socio-economic Characteristics of Women Median Earnings . Women's earnings relative to men have increased from 60 percent of men's earnings in the 1960s to 73 percent in 1998, but the difference is expected to continue. Labor force participation rates .