At the inaugural Women's Super Summit on Monday, some of the nation's leading industry experts gathered to discuss improving equality and making gender-specific changes to the superannuation system.
In 50 years time, the number of Australians older than 75 will have increased by 4 million, roughly the population of Sydney or Melbourne.
One of the challenges associated with an aging population is making superannuation funds last longer, especially for women.
According to Dr David Knox of Mercer Consulting, the number of women living longer is rising.
“Our statistics suggest that 50 per cent of Australian women will live beyond 90, and half the baby girls born today will live beyond 95.”
When it comes to superannuation, however, women only earn about half the retirement savings of men.
“The main contribution to that is women's workforce experience and the gender pay gap,” says Cate Wood, president of the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees. She says there is a persistent 17 per cent gap between men and women’s pay.
There are other factors that affect women’s superannuation levels. Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick, says there’s a real challenge for women trying to get back into the workforce after having children.
“We know superannuation assumes full time work, across the life cycle. And for most women, that just doesn't work.”
Despite women representing about 43 per cent of the workforce, some believe Australia's super system isn't flexible enough to accommodate changing employment patterns. Ms Broderick says there are ways to tackle this problem.
“Some of the ideas are things like caring credit schemes. That is for those women who need to leave work, to care - there would continue to be a notional payment into a superannuation account for them.”
Superannuation figures show that on average, a person needs about a million dollars in their fund, to maintain a comfortable lifestyle.
There are some practical tips women can employ early on to close the gap, including consolidating their super and voluntary contributions.
Melissa Fuller, deputy CEO of Rice Warner, says a little saving now can go a long way.
“Anything from as little as $20 a week will make a difference, because you've got that money going in and then compounding over 20, 30, 40 years.”
