Superannuation has a huge divide. This change will help fix it

Separate figures from the Super Members Council show that adding super to parental leave would give a mother of one up to $7500 extra at retirement, and a mother of two up to $14,500 more.

The Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce, led by prominent businesswoman Sam Mostyn, recommended in October last year that the government immediately legislate to add superannuation payments onto its parental leave scheme.

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Labor has long supported the idea and took the policy to the 2019 election. While it was not a policy in the 2022 election campaign, shortly after Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said the government thought it was a good policy, it was just a matter of cost.

Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said paying superannuation on top of parental leave was a step towards gender equality and improving women’s workforce participation.

“It helps normalise taking time off work for caring responsibilities and reinforces paid parental leave is not a welfare payment – it is a workplace entitlement just like annual and sick leave,” she said.

Recent research from consulting firm KPMG found that in 2019–20, the median superannuation balance for women aged 60 to 64 was $139,056, while for men of the same age, it was $180,928.

Before International Women’s Day on Friday, KPMG’s head of superannuation, Linda Elkins, said closing the gender superannuation gap did not need to come at a large cost to the government.

“The gender superannuation gap has proved one of the most intractable areas of inequality in Australia,” she said.

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