Aware Super takes on Australia's gender retirement gap, aiming for financial equality

By Newsdesk

April 08 2024
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Aware Super, one of Australia's largest superannuation funds with a 70 per cent female membership, is on a mission to close the gender gap that sees women retire with 30 per cent less super than men on average, according to Katrina McPhee, the fund's Chief of Staff.

Speaking exclusively to The Business Of, a podcast from the University of New South Wales Business School, Ms McPhee highlighted the long-term consequences of the gender pay gap, stating, "Where we might have a 13 per cent pay gap, by the time you reach retirement, that's a 30 to 40 per cent retirement gap."

She added, "Older females, retired females, are the fastest growing population within the homeless community because there's been this baked-in inequality in the system."

While superannuation funds do not determine salaries, Ms McPhee emphasized their influential voice and important role in shaping policy. She noted that since the royal commission, the system has become more competitive and human-centred, evolving from a "gentlemen's agreement-style, industrial relations-style industry" to a more dynamic one.

Aware Super also faces the challenge of balancing short-term and long-term investment perspectives to maximize returns for members. Ms McPhee stressed the importance of adopting a long-term view, stating, "It's one thing to have money to retire, but if we don't have a wonderful world to live in, it feels counterintuitive. So climate change and energy transition are really important to us."

One example of Aware Super's long-term investment strategy is their "key worker affordable housing plan," which involves a build-to-rent program. Ms McPhee explained, "We started looking at the build-to-rent market. How might we become a landlord, essentially, as a superannuation fund? And how might we then offer up more affordable rent to essential workers? So that's what we did."

She added, "People often say, 'Are you, by giving more affordable housing, giving up rent that would ultimately be returned for members? But what we found is by giving that to teachers, nurses and police officers, they generally stay in properties far longer, they do less damage to the properties. And the communities that they build have been extraordinary. So what we're seeing is the profitability of those rental agreements over a long time."

Dr Juliet Bourke, the host of The Business Of and a global consultant and academic at UNSW Business School, commented on the potential for organizations with institutional power to achieve wide-scale social good, like closing the retirement pay gap, following a moment of reckoning like a royal commission.

aware super takes on australias gender retirement gap aiming for financial equality