News

Shepparton women to retire with $40,000 less superannuation: Super body

By Max Stainkamph

May 3, 2021

Shepparton women retire with almost $42,000 less superannuation than men, and without further action will slip further and further behind.

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

Data from Industry Super Australia showed Shepparton women have a median superannuation balance of just $150,700 when they hit retirement age.

Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia recommends $545,000 superannuation for a "comfortable" retirement.

Shepparton's men are also well below the comfortable figure, at just $192,000.

At all ages, women have less superannuation than men. The difference is most stark in the 55-59 age group, when men having 48 per cent more super stashed away - $151,000 to $78,100.

The gap is closest in the 40-44 age bracket, where it's just $5000, just a seven per cent difference.

Industry Super Australia is calling on the government to list superannuation rates from 9.5 per cent to 12 per cent.

ISA data showed a 30-year-old woman on the median wage could have up to $85,000 less at retirement if the superannuation rate is cut, which it says could cause a generation of Shepparton women to suffer further economic insecurity.

Industry Super Australia advocacy director Georgia Brumby said government had been "dragging its feet" on reform, and recommended changes to help increase women's superannuation.

Those changes included paying superannuation on every dollar earned, including paid parental leave; abolishing the threshold where superannuation isn't paid for jobs earning less than $450 a month, which affects women with multiple part-time jobs; and enacting superannuation splitting legislation to streamline the process of dividing super assets in separations.

A recent retirement survey, commissioned by ISA, found that on average women spend 12 years less in the full-time workforce than men, this time away from work is having a dramatic impact on their super balance.

One in three women retire with no super balance at all, according to a 2016 Senate report.

“It is time we bridged the gender gap in super – if local MPs don’t act now local women’s savings will keep falling further behind,” Ms Brumby said.

“There is nothing more important for a woman’s economic security than having enough savings at retirement.”