How Social Security Benefits for Women Vary by Age

The Social Security Administration figures your benefit by looking at your 35 highest-earning years, adjusting those earnings for inflation, and running them through the primary insurance amount, or PIA, formula. That formula determines your base monthly payment. Because the calculation itself is the same for everyone, the differences in average benefits largely reflect work history and claiming decisions.

Full retirement age ranges from 66 to 67, depending on your birth year, and it is 67 for people born in 1960 or later. Claiming before that age can reduce your payment by as much as 30%. Waiting until age 70, on the other hand, earns delayed retirement credits that raise benefits by 8% per year.

The gap between men’s and women’s benefits widens with age. At 70, men receive an average of $2,529.62, compared with $2,024.08 for women, a difference of about $505.54 each month. The table below shows average benefits for men and women from ages 62 through 70 based on the latest available data.

Why the gender gap exists

The difference reflects long-standing gaps in lifetime earnings and in the number of years spent in paid work. Because women’s average Social Security checks are lower, those payments often must last longer. The SSA says a 65-year-old woman is expected to live about 21 more years, while a man of the same age is expected to live about 18 more years.

A 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment will take effect in 2027. That increase is not reflected in the table above, but it would add roughly $73 a month to the average benefit for a 70-year-old woman.

Social Security was designed to replace only about 40% of pre-retirement income, which is usually not enough to cover all retirement expenses. Most retirees need savings or another source of income to make up the difference.

For a broader look at how Social Security affects retirement, see this guide.

Some married women may see a different outcome

The figures above focus on retirement benefits, but many women end up receiving spousal or survivor benefits based on a partner’s work record because those payments are larger than what they could get on their own.

Spousal benefits can be as much as half of the amount your spouse is eligible to receive at full retirement age. Your spouse must already be collecting retirement benefits before you can claim a spousal payment. Unlike retirement benefits, spousal benefits stop growing after full retirement age, so there is no advantage to waiting longer than that.

Anyone who receives a spousal benefit may also qualify for a survivor benefit after their spouse dies. That benefit can be as much as 100% of the amount your spouse was receiving or was eligible to receive at the time of death.

To find out what you might receive and how to apply, contact the Social Security Administration by phone or make an appointment at your local office.