“Despite real gains in employment for women over the last decade, they still lag males in terms of full-time and overall employment levels,” industry communications director at Roy Morgan Norman Morris said.
“This has been one of the major reasons that overall female income levels are around 25 per cent lower than males, which obviously in turn leads to lower superannuation contributions and balances when compared to males.”
According to the polling house’s most recent survey, at $177,000, the superannuation held by women hoping to retire in the next 12 months is equal to just 57.3 per cent of the average male balance of $309,000.
In 2008, the average female intending retiree’s balance was $79,000, compared to the average male intending retiree’s $143,000. That’s equivalent to 55.2 per cent.
Noting this, Roy Morgan said publicity about the gender gap has largely been without impact, describing the 2.1 per cent increase as “no real progress”.
“The end result of lower income, and interrupted employment being more likely for women, has been that over the last decade they have been unable to close the gap to males and generally show inadequate superannuation for retirement,” Mr Morris said.
“It is likely to take some considerable time and changes to superannuation conditions for females to achieve an adequate level of superannuation more equivalent to their male counterparts.”
