Social Security and Life-Expectancy Gap in US – Benefits that men earning $20,000 or $80,000 could expect to receive

A study led by Stanford University economist Raj Chetty, showed that life expectancy differed for the top 1% and bottom 1% of the income distribution by 15 years for men and by 10 years for women.

Now, a new study from the Government Accountability Office shows the dramatic effect this is having on Social Security. To show the effect of changing U.S. life expectancy, the GAO studied the benefits that men earning $20,000 or $80,000 could expect to receive from the Social Security system over the course of their lives.

Typically, such benefits would be calculated based on the average life expectancy for U.S. men., but GAO calculated the benefits by looking at the life expectancy that’s actually typical for men at different income levels.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at  How the Life-Expectancy Gap for Rich and Poor Skews Social Security – Real Time Economics – WSJ