Is Social Security sexist?

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. If men lived as long as women, then no.

Fact #9: Social Security is especially beneficial for women.
Because women tend to earn less than men, take more time out of the paid workforce, live longer, accumulate less savings, and receive smaller pensions, Social Security is especially important for them.[26] Women constitute 56 percent of Social Security beneficiaries aged 62 and older and 67 percent of beneficiaries aged 85 and older.[27]
Women pay 41 percent of Social Security payroll taxes[28] but receive nearly half of Social Security benefits.[29] This is because women benefit disproportionately from the program’s inflation-protected benefits (because women tend to live longer), its progressive formula for computing benefits (because they tend to have lower earnings), and its benefits for non-working spouses and survivors.

Strikethroughs mine.

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3261

Is it sexist?

Let's answer with a question; is it racist? Black children get back far less benefit from their contributions in their lifetime relative to white kids, simply because about half will die before reaching retirement age. But the progressive formula is a net gain for the lucky ones who do survive long enough to collect. I personally think that a good equal protection/civil rights argument could be made on the basis of race, but the fact that it has not suggests that none are likely in event of ratification of the ERA.

What I would like is for more emphasis to be placed on health and well-being of men and people of color so that they live long enough to benefit from the program.

Oh, and this is to the onlookers: nothing about the ERA guarantees equal wages. There will still be "a pay gap" because women will still choose careers for different reasons than men do, and will still take more time off, and will undoubtedly still work fewer hours. What pay gap exists today is entirely due to women's disinclination to negotiate for higher salary.

I do have one observation. The Social Security Administration brags at length about the disproportionate benefit that women get. It is apparent that they think the patriarchal society considers this a selling point.