Published: 29 Mar 2023
Women continue to miss out on super due to time out of the workforce to care for children and other family members. This contributes to the gender gap in super balances, which currently sees women retiring with a third less super than men.
Compounding the problem is the fact that young women on lower incomes are more likely to be affected by unpaid super – depriving them of the vital early career contributions needed to build their retirement savings.
A key driver of the unpaid super problem is that super payments are misaligned with wages. Mandating the payment of super with wages will benefit women immediately. Increasing the frequency of super guarantee contributions would also deliver an extra $8,000 at retirement to 4.2 million workers, many of whom are women, as investment earnings on super contributions will begin to accrue sooner.
*The above material, whilst correct at the time of publication may include references or statements which are no longer current.