New research by Aware Super has found Australia’s national gender pay gap of 13 per cent will equate to a $93,000 deficit in the superannuation balances of women when compared to Australian men at retirement.
The report identifies five factors that work against women in the education years, during career selection, with regards to pay equity in the workplace and promotion, with development opportunities for women throughout their careers, and due to a greater burden in domestic caring responsibilities.
Aware CEO Deanne Stewart said the fund’s Hold the Door report would help Australian women, their partners and their employers to understand the gender retirement gap is a direct consequence of the five closed doors experienced by women over the decades of their working lives.
“Equal pay for women and men has been a legal requirement in Australia since 1969. In reality though, as Hold the Door shows us, the persistent gender pay gap – and subsequent gap at retirement, is as much about how we educate our young people, how we help teenagers plan for their future careers, and how we support employees with caring responsibilities, as it is about rates of pay,” she said.