Literacy won’t close super gap: ISA
Industry Super Australia, while supporting the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC’s) financial literacy videos for women, has said it’s not enough to close the superannuation gender gap.
ISA’s consumer advocate, Sarah Saunders, has welcomed the Women Talk Money videos, which launched today, but called for policy reforms to match.
“Almost 30 years on, women are still retiring with half the superannuation of men,” she said. “The threshold currently locks hundreds of thousands of women working part time and casual hours out of the super system.”
The consumer advocate said financial literacy wasn’t enough to fix the gap, which for women and men aged 25 to 34 on the same salary is 14.6 per cent, and at retirement age, is 47.4 per cent.
Saunders said simple policy changes like adding super to parental leave and removing the $450 superannuation guarantee threshold would make a big difference to the gap and were worth considering.
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