You have to be married for at least 10 years to qualify for the Social Security dependent spouse benefit, which is half of your husband's (spouse's) benefit (based on the spouse's earnings).

The years spent earning little or '0' income will drag down the average retirement benefit to which we would otherwise be entitled.

Full retirement age for most of us is 67, with at least 35 years of work.

By the year 2030, four out of ten women will still be earning more Social Security benefits based on their spouse's work records than on their own. Depressing!

Motherhood is the number one risk factor for poverty in old age.

 

Approximately forty five percent of women[vi] with infants under the age of one work inside the home and outside the [vii] labor force[viii].

 

There are approximately 38 million mothers between the ages of 15 and 44[i], and this is what they face.

In 2002, women earned 77.5 cents to the man’s dollar[ii]. 

Mothers typically experience an even larger wage gap than other women – at the rate of 8 points larger than that of nonmothers  [iii]. 

In old age, the story gets worse.  An alarming 12% of women over 65 live below the poverty line[iv].

Factoring in those who hover near poverty, one third of women over 65 live in or near poverty[v]. 

Too many of the elderly poor are our mothers.
 
Why Are Mothers Poor In Old Age? 

 

Because We Give Them Zero Credits for Caregiving!  Approximately forty five percent of women[vi] with infants under the age of one work inside the home and outside the [vii] labor force[viii], and the appreciation we give them is zero - zero earnings and zero credits toward their Social Security benefit.[ix] The Social Security benefit is based upon the highest thirty five years of earnings.  Because of caregiving women struggle to work for thirty five years, and for each year that millions of mothers remain completely out of the workforce, they receive no social security credits, dragging down their average benefit in retirement. As of 1993[x], only a little better than a third of women drew Social Security benefits derived from their own lifetime earnings.[xi] These women’s sparse lifetime earnings garner them less than half the benefit to which their spouse is entitled. Each year close to their birthdays, these moms receive a Social Security Personal Benefit Statements with a number that society thinks a mom’s year of unpaid caregiving work is worth –a big fat zero!

Sources.

[i] United States Census Bureau, USCB, 2001.
[ii] DAVID LEONHARDT, Wage Gap Between Men and Women Shrinks, New York Times,  February 17, 2003 (reporting from the Bureau of Labor Statistics annual study).
[iii]Herd, Pamela, Care Credits: Race, Gender, Class, and Social Security Reform, p. 14 (citing Harkness & Waldfogel 1999).  .
[iv] poverty line ($11,940 for a family of 2).
[v] USCB 2000.
[vi] Herd. This rate was up from a low of 41%% in 1998 (see graph); but it is lower than the 69% figures, when first recorded by the Census in 1976
[vii] Herd. The number of zero earnings years has diminished on average for women since the 1960s, down from 60% of women earning zero for six or more years

However, most women have zero earnings years that are calculated into their benefits[vii]
[viii] In 2001, this number was 3.9 million.
[ix]United States Census Bureau 2002 (Figures for 2001).
[x] By 2030, only 40 percent of women will earn enough benefits to qualify for them on their own work records
[xi] Ann Crittenden, The Price of Motherhood (2001)