Women don't earn as much as men, are often take time from work to be family carers, they live longer but retire earlier.
That means currently women are retiring with around half the superannuation savings of men.
And by 2055, two-thirds of single women will retire below a comfortable standard.
So what can be done about it?
31 year old Melanie Lane grew up very aware of her finances.
"I was always raised to make sure we had enough money to stand on our own two feet and that we didn't rely on that idea that a man is not a financial plan and to make sure that we were able to be self-sufficient."
While she's now married, she's been salary-sacrificing to increase her super from a young age but says it's getting harder.
"I've been salary sacrificing money into my super from a young age when I started work. It's hard at the moment because now we have a mortgage so you look at the trade-off between money into the mortage now versus down the track and it is quite difficult to plan so far ahead."
Melanie doesn't have children - yet - but knows those kinds of choices can affect her nest egg.
"I think there are a lot of opportunities for women to consider their retirement planning, especially given that most women will take time off at some point of their careers to be a primary carer or alternatively down the track take some time off to work part-time."
Industry Super Australia CEO David Whiteley says that ultimately affects the retirement savings of women.
"What this means is that their super contributions can be lower and they lose the benefit of compounding too, or some benefit of compounding, but secondly the way the super tax system works, it works against women."
Women already earn less than men, with the pay gap sitting at 19 per cent - but that's not the only disadvantage they face.
Industry Super's David Whiteley wants substantial structural reform including a rebalancing of super tax contributions, which currenty favours top income-earners.
"That is to reduce the tax breaks for wealthier Australians, and increase the tax breaks for lower and middle income Australians. This means more people will come off the age pension entirely or will be on the part pension which over time of course will reduce pension costs."
He also wants the government to review its decision to scrap the $500 per year low-income super contribution for those earning less than $37,000.
"Over two million women will be $500 worse off in their super. Again, over their working life, it is going to add up to over $35,000 so it's a very significant issue for women and we're hopeful the government will review the decision."
It's a move supported by the CEO of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, Pauline Vamos.
"These measures can be paid, in part, by putting a ceiling on the system and that's why we've been advocating to put in a cap of $2.5 million over which the system treats amounts of that significance differently for tax purposes."
And Pauline Vamos wants the superannuation guarantee extended.
"There is no 'one size fits all', so let's make up for the broken work patterns. What we've asked the government is to add SG to a lot of parental payments and other income payments when women are not working."
A senate inquiry into the issue is accepting submissions until the end of this month.
Share
