WASHINGTON — While Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders advocate equal pay for women, a second-term member of the House of Representatives from Florida is focused on helping them get higher Social Security benefits when they retire.

Legislation introduced Wednesday by Rep. Patrick Murphy, a Democrat, would change how the government calculates Social Security payments.

Under current law, the Social Security Administration pays retirees based on their average wages during the 35 years in which their income was highest.

Since many women interrupt high-paid work years to care for their children at home, the Social Security Administration must find those missing years elsewhere in order to reach the 35-year threshold, and they often are tied to part-time jobs or lower-paying work. The result is smaller earnings during those years, which means lower Social Security payments.

“There’s a lot of talk about pay parity between men and women,” Murphy said. “But there’s also the question of Social Security retirement parity.”

Murphy’s bill would allow a parent to exclude up to five years of lower income from Social Security calculations.

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While the congressman said mothers and fathers could benefit from his measure, he noted that most stay-at-home parents are female.

Many mothers, Murphy said, face a choice between keeping jobs that pay $35,000 a year or placing their children in day care centers whose cost eats into those earnings.

Murphy, who is challenging Marco Rubio this year for the Senate seat held by the Republican presidential candidate, said his bill would pay for itself and extend the long-term solvency of Social Security.

The measure would raise the $118,500 annual income cap at which Social Security taxes stop being collected from wages. Under Murphy’s bill, the cap would increase at a faster clip than its current inflation-tied rate.


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