US seeks rule to equalize retirement aid for women

The administration urged the Supreme Court for the first time Tuesday to rule that it is discriminatory to use sex-based mortality tables to calculate unequal retirement payments for men and women.

The Justice Department said a lower court correctly ruled that an employee retirement pension based on widely used insurance annuity tables to pay women lower benefits violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The tables are based on the theory that women, in general, live longer than men.