International Women’s Day was on Tuesday this week, and while we celebrate women’s achievements around the world, now is also a good time to examine a major inequity for Aussie women: superannuation.
While women live on average four years longer than men, the gender pay gap means they often have to do it with 23% less superannuation – as reported by SmallCaps, a woman would have to work an extra 11 years to make up the deficit.
According to Debby Blakey, CEO of industry super fund HESTA, while abolishing the $450 super threshold was a positive step, more needs to be done to improve women’s financial security.
“An incoming Government needs to prioritise long-overdue superannuation equity measures and boost women’s workforce participation through improved access to affordable childcare.
“Addressing gender inequity will not only create a better society but has real economic benefits that can help investors like HESTA deliver better outcomes for their members,” she said.
Figures show women have lower workforce participation and make 14.2% less than men on average, and HESTA is calling for a number of changes including paying super on Commonwealth Parental Leave Pay, bringing in a superannuation ‘Carer Credit’ for unpaid parental leave, and introducing universally accessible, affordable childcare.
“Women are also making an enormous economic and social contribution through the amount of unpaid caring roles they undertake. They shouldn’t be financially penalised with inadequate super savings and a greater vulnerability to poverty as they age.
“We have an opportunity, as Australia starts to recover from the pandemic, to create a better normal. Taking substantive action now to address these persisting inequalities will make for a fairer Australia but will also boost productivity and economic growth, which benefits everyone,” said Ms Blakey.
We couldn’t agree more.
