Social Security

Gender and Economic Security in Retirement
Sunwha Lee and Lois Shaw, Institute for Women’s Policy Research (www.iwpr.org). 2003. “Despite the gender gap in annual benefits, Social Security is crucial for the economic security of unmarried women who live alone at ages 65 and over. Without Social Security benefits, more than two-thirds of unmarried women living alone would fall into poverty.” 35 pages in PDF

Social Security and Women
The Economic Policy Institute (www.epi.org). 2000. “The benefits for widows and divorced women that Social Security provides will not necessarily be available in a system of individual accounts.” Policy brief, 2 pages in PDF

Why Social Security Is a Better Deal than Privatization
for Women and Their Families
Fact Sheet from the National Women’s Law Center (www.nwlc.org). 2002. Diverting revenue out of Social Security and into private accounts …would double the size of the shortfall, require deep cuts in guarawnteed benefits, and jeopardize the financial security of generations of women and their families.” 1 page in PDF

Also from NWLC:
Women and Social Security Reform: What’s At Stake
2002. An extended fact sheet about Social Security benefits for women.
7 pages in PDF

Social Security: The Largest Source of Income
for Both Women and Men in Retirement
Heidi Hartmann and Sunhwa Lee, Institute for Women’s Policy Research (www.iwpr.org), IWPR Publication # D455. Apr 2003. “The vulnerability of women in old age underscores the importance of maintaining a Social Security program that provides secure retirement and survivor benefits fully adjusted to keep up with inflation. Enhancements of Social Security are needed that would better protect divorced women, women and men with disabilities, and those who have always worked for low wages at unstable jobs or had low life-time earnings because of caregiving responsibilities. Improving Social Security benefits for these groups would further reduce poverty among them.” 8 pages in PDF

The Century Foundation Social Security Network
Publications, commentary, resources. www.socsec.org

Twelve Reasons Why Privatizing Social Security is a Bad Idea
Greg Anrig Jr., Bernard Wasow, The Century Foundation (www.tcf.org). Dec 2004. “Addressing Social Security’s potential long-term financing challenges by taking the dramatic step of diverting its payroll taxes to create new personal accounts will have drastic consequences for federal finances, future retirees, and those who rely on the system the most. Learn more about twelve major reasons why less costly and less painful reforms should be considered instead.” Issue brief in HTML

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Tax Issues

Tax Day: How Do America's Child Benefits Compare?
The Clearinghouse on International Developments in Child, Youth and Family Policies at Columbia University (www.childpolicyintl.org). 2002. “Unlike most other industrialized countries, family benefits for American's with children do not come in a neat package. Applying for tax benefits is more confusing in the United States because it requires that a family be aggressive and savvy enough to understand the tax system. The net effect is that those American families who most need assistance are the least likely to apply or be aware of the benefits, and when they do apply, assistance is likely to come once a year, rather than on a monthly basis”. Issue Brief In HTML or PDF

Leave No Child Behind?
Nancy Folbre, The American Prospect (www.prospect.org). Jan 01. “The only true way to build an “opportunity society” is to thoroughly reform our current social-insurance and education policies.” Full article in HTML

Giving Tax Credit Where Credit Is Due: A ‘Universal Unified Child Credit’ that expands the EITC and cuts taxes for working families
Robert Cherry and Max Sawicky, The Economic Policy Institute (www.epi.org). 2000. “Nearly one in five American children are in families whose income is below the poverty line. Almost 10 million children lack health insurance coverage and Medicaid benefits. An effective means of helping these children would be a major expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit that restructures and combines some of the other tax benefits available to families with children.” Policy brief in HTML

Making work pay with tax reform
Max B. Sawicky and Robert Cherry, The Economic Policy Institute (www.epi.org). Dec 01. “To provide tax relief to families with children, refundable income tax credits tied to earnings and family size are the indispensable remedy. Many families who work and pay payroll taxes see little gain from income tax cuts, and the changes in the tax code passed in 2001 do little to remedy the problem.” Issue brief in HTML

Edward J. McCaffery on “Taxing Women”
1997. “The United States tax system is a product of the 1930s and 1940s. At that time the single-earner model was the norm for families—men worked outside the home and women worked inside it. Tax policy decisions favored and rewarded this arrangement and made it difficult to be a two-earner family—made it difficult for married women with children to work. Over time those biases have gotten worse, but we haven't really re-examined them.” Interview in HTML

Edward J. McCaffery on his book, “Fair Not Flat:
How to Make the Tax System Better and Fairer”
1997. “Tax is a very political subject. It is also a very big matter— taxes today account for two trillion dollars annually, one-third of our national economy. I devote an entire chapter to a critique of the tax proposal in the Contract with America for a per-child— not child care— credit. That turns out to be a very sophisticated piece of political strategy designed to keep women in the home.” Interview in HTML

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