Single women lag their married counterparts in retirement readiness, says study

Unmarried women don’t feel as ready for retirement as married women, according to a new study published by the Employee Research Benefit Institute. The new research, which compared retirement behaviors amongst more than 1,500 workers and 1,100 retirees, found that unmarried women have lower retirement confidence than married women and are more likely to have lower financial assets. According to the data, while 56% of women who had never been married and 58% of divorced women had less than $25,000 in assets, only 27% of married women could say the same.

The report found other discrepancies around retirement finances, too. Married workers felt more confident about their ability to manage their day-to-day finances than women who had never been married and were more confident than single women about their ability to handle emergency expenses. They were also more confident they would have enough assets to last through retirement.

Related: September 7 is National 401(k) Day: Time to bring retirement readiness into focus

Other key findings of the report include:

• Women who have never been married were more likely to say saving for retirement is not a top priority.
• Women who had never been married are more likely to say they don’t know where to turn for financial advice, with 45% of them – nearly half – not knowing who to ask.
• Married women retirees were more likely to say their retirement lifestyle is better than they expected. On the flip side, divorced or widowed retirees were more likely to say the retirement lifestyle is worse than they expected.
• While 42% of married women retirees retired earlier than expected, that number was up to 51% for divorced and widowed retirees.

These differences indicate a potentially worrisome trend, according to Craig Copeland, director of Wealth Benefits Research at the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

“The survey results are a real wake-up call when it comes to the situation of unmarried women workers and their retirement prospects,” he says. “The evidence shows that the current slate of ‘help’ solutions aren’t resonating well enough. In particular, a focus on retirement savings is not paramount for them, as opposed to meeting their current financial needs.”