= S&S (NAPSA)}—Recent research revealed some intriguing statistics about women’s wages, pensions and retirement benefits. According to an informational eard called FACTS ABOUT Women Wages, Pensions and Retirement Benefits, these lag behind those of men. Important information on the eard imeludes: * In 2000, women earned 73 cents for every dollar men earned. A typical 25-year-old college edu- ated woraan will lose $523,000 im earnings over her lifetime due to he wage gap. Two-thirds of the 7.2 million elderly women who live alone have incomes below $15,000. * In 2000, women over 65 were nearly twice as likely as men over 65 to live in poverty. * Social Security is the sole source of income for 25 percent of older women. The card is part of a series of pocket-sized, quick-read fact cards being sent to public and private sector decision-makers as part of an educational campaign created by the Heinz Family Philanthropies and sponsored by Mellon Financial Corporation. “This is the next installment in a series of FACTS ABOUT cards,” said Heinz Family Philanthropies Chairwoman Teresa Heing. “We will distribute ecards on a variety of topics ranging from women and pensions and health care, to education and the environment. The only way good decisions on critical issues can be made is if our leaders are fully informed and the FACTS ABOUT series aims to provide someof that crucial information in an easy to use format. The content of each ecard is pre- pared by the Heing Family Philantropies, in conjunction with national experts across the ULS., and Mellon is paying for the production-related costs of the FACTS ABOUTWomen card.” “One issue we want to help emphasize is the wage, pension and retirement imbalance so many women in this country face,” explained Rose M. Cotton, Mellon senior vice president and director of Corporate Affairs. “We must look at waysof leveling the playing field so that women are respected and compensated for their participation im the workforce with a sensitivity that they often have a responsibil ity in the home as well. We should be flexible in our need to address their migration into and out of the job market and not penalize them for taking care of family responsibilities.” “Women are making greater contributions to the workforce than at any poimt im our history,” added Jeffrey Lewis, Executive Director of the Heinz Family Philanthropies, “and decision-makers in the public and private sectors need to create a mechanism that protects and promotes the contin- uation of that trend. When you consider the contributions that women make it is sharneful that the United States has no national retirement policy. The lack of one compounds the financial inequities that plague women today and well inte the future.” The initial FACTS ABOUTcard dealt with prescription drug coverage for seniors, a subject chosen because it was of particular interest to the late United States Senator John Heinz, R-Pa. This second FACTS ABODT card addresses another issue that was of great concern to the Senator. Senator Heinz had long championed reforming pension rules that unnecessarily discriminated against women and advocated women’s rights both to earn and receive pension money on par with men. The Heinz Family Philanthropies (HFP) are a group of foundations and funds associated with the Heinz family. HFP shares a tradition of theughtful and enterprising philanthropy g that dates back to Henry J. Heinz, the founder of the company that bears his name. H.J. Heinz once described his mission as “to do a common thing uncommonly well.” The various HFPs have always taken this mission to heart. Its foundations are uniquely pesitioned to advance the search for solutions te the compelling challenges of our times, and its goal is to do this thoughtfully andwell. Mellon Financial Corporation is a global financial services cornpany. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Mellon is one of the world’s leading providers of financial services for institutions, corporations and affluent individ- uals, providing institutional asset Mmanagernent, rautual funds, or- vate wealth management, asset servicing, human resources ser- vices and treasury services. Meljon has approximately $3 trillion im assets under management, administration or custody, inchid- iag more than $610billion under management. Its asset manage- ment companies include The Dreyfus Corporation and U.K.based Newton Investment Man- agement Limited. News and other information about Mellon is available at www.mellon.com. For additional information on FACTS ABOUT, contact Jeffrey Lewis, Executive Director of The Heinz Family Philanthropies at jlewis@heinz.org or at 1201 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Suite 619, Washington, B.C. 20004.
