Gender equity push to improve women’s retirement

The Federal Government, in conjunction with the Australian Human Rights Commission, has announced further plans to help bridge the gap between men and women's retirement savings.

Employers can now access a toolkit which provides techniques to attract, recruit, retain and develop women and which is designed to allow women to break into traditionally male-dominated industries. The Labor Government has contributed $50,000 to its development.

The Minister for the Status of Women, Julie Collins, said getting more women into male-dominated industries could help provide gender pay equity and close the retirement savings gap.

"Getting more women into male-dominated industries is an essential component of addressing future skills shortages, as well as improving gender pay equity, which continues to hover at around 17 per cent, meaning women are more vulnerable to poverty in old age; are retiring with less superannuation and with a greater reliance than men on the age pension," she said.

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"The toolkit forms a part of Australia's commitment to the Equal Futures Partnership, an international commitment to expanding opportunities for women launched in New York last year by then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton."

Collins said equality between men and women was at the heart of Federal Government reforms in this area.

Women would benefit from increases to the superannuation guarantee rate as well as the Low Income Superannuation Contribution, Collins said, which would impact the retirement savings of 2.1 million women.

She said further Budget reforms that would improve the standing of women included reforms to carer arrangements, paid parental leave reform and other moves to improve pay equity and grant women access to areas of work typically reserved for men.