The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1938-09-15
Working Women
Continued From Page One)

At that, however, after 10 years
work, these women will be able to
draw, when they are 65 years old, S12O
a year, in payments of $40 month as
long as they live. If they have work
ed 20 years averaging 5000 year,
their old-age benefits will amount to
S15.S3 a month.
AS for the women who keep on
working at some regular job year after
year, from girlhood up to 65, they of
course build up better income for
their old age, just as men do. After
80 years work at pay averaging S15
a week or $3.50 a year, their benefits
if they stop working at age 65 will be
S32 a month for the rest of their lives.
At pay averaging $25 a week for 30
years, the retirement benefit is $45 a
month. At pay averaging $50 week,
the benefit is $63.75 month.
1t is true this insurance costs some
thing. A few cents week. cent on
each dollar of wages now, and
gradually little more every 3 years
until 1949, but never more than cents
on the dollar. This is the workers So
cial security tax. 1t is taken out OF
her pay by her employer, and turned
over to the United States Government
with the same amount from the en-
ployer's own pocket. Because the en-
ployer pays half the "premium," so
to speak, the old-age insurance plan
set up in the Social Security Act gives
the worker an extraordinarily good re-
turn on his money.
Compare the benefits with the work
er's taxes: The girl on SIS week for
5 years, beginning January l, 1887,
pays total of $46.S0 in that time. If
she begins to draw benefits at 65, and
lives to be rs years old, her monthly
benefit checks for $15.75 all that time
will amount to 81 800 in all. That is
more than 40 times the amount of tax
es she has paid. If she should not live
to receive any of her benefits, her
family or "estate" will receive lump
sum amounting to $136.50 or almost
three times the amount of her taxes.
The woman who works for wages all
her life will Of course receive much
more than the girl on SIS week for
5 years. If she averages $25 a week
for 80 years, her monthly retirement
benefit at age 65 will be $45 month,
and by the time she is rs years old
she will have received total of $5,400.
Her social security taxes from 1887 on
will have amounted to 1915 over the
80 years she was at work, so her bene-
fits will be more than five times the
cost to her.
Women who have only few years
to work before they are 65, and whose
wages are very low, or very irregular,
may not be able to build up a monthly
retirement benefit under the Social Sc
curity Act. They will receive, how
ever, single cash payment at age 65
which amounts to 31a percent of their
total wages since 1886.
Suppose, for example, a woman now
past 63 is making about 81 a week
most of the time. Suppose that from
January /, 1897, until she is 65 she
earns, in all 81 900. That would en-
title her to single cash payment of
$35 She would have paid SO in So
cial security taxes, but her benefit is
312 times her taxes.
In other words, whether the worker
builds up monthly retirement benefits,
or only single cash payment at age
G5, she may be sure of getting her
money back with interest. Usually
she gets back several times her tax
money.