The gender gap in retirement savings is closing. In fact, it could be on course to reverse the long-standing predominance of men’s retirement savings rates, says a recent study by MassMutual.
Women’s retirement savings rate is growing fast, the study says — the 2014 rate is a healthy 17% higher than last year’s, and a whopping 71% higher than that of 2009. MassMutual says that women overall are showing greater interest in saving for retirement, and that it is particularly high among younger women.
The gap in salary deferral rates is closing too — MassMutual says that the average rate for men is 5.7% of compensation and 5.37% for women. Further, it says that the average deferral rate of men is falling, while that women’s is holding.
Among the individual states, women in Montana, Michigan and Rhode Island have the highest average salary deferral rates, all above 7.5%. Regarding industry sector, women in the health care, social assistance, manufacturing, finance and insurance sectors have the highest deferral rates.
