Should men and women receive different monthly benefits because women live longer than men?

Polemic Paper from the year 2018 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, grade: 1.6, , language: English, abstract: The question, 'Should men and women receive different monthly benefits because women live longer than men?' requires a comprehensive answer. Therefore, this research paper will attempt to answer the question. In the past two decades, social security issues have been raising concern among the US population. Consequently, pension plans have changed remarkably to influence retirement benefits, especially with regard to gender. Ordinarily, employment patterns of men and women differ in several aspects. First of all, more men are in conventional employment compared to women. This implies that, men's income is higher than that of women. In regard to saving money for retirement, men exhibit consistent saving plan, whereas women experience challenges in saving some income for their retirement. On the other hand, women have high social and health needs compared to men, especially in old age when they rely solely on monthly retirement benefits. It has been found out that some gender related inequalities subject women to financial consequences during their working life and even after retirement. However, the recent changes in the US pension plan from the traditional system to 401k plans seem to have placed women at the gaining end. In addition, policy changes in other retirement aspects such as access to healthcare and social care. For instance, the current healthcare reforms, precisely the Affordable Care Act has brought enormous benefits to women compared to men. Another aspect, which seems to influence compensation of retirees, is the life expectancy issue. It is obvious that, women experience long life expectancy than men. Despite all these inequalities between men and women, monthly benefits are provided equally, and this appears to be a significant bias in the compensation plan.