Super gender gap narrows, but finance pay lags

InvestorDaily

The second half of 2018 saw the gender gap in superannuation narrow slightly, but other areas – such as the 26 per cent gender pay gap in the finance sector – indicate that “further work is still needed” to be done, according to the Financy Women’s Index. It revealed that Australian women’s economic progress improved marginally in the quarter leading up to June. The index reading for June was 111.0, up 0.3 per cent from the March quarter, which had a reading of 110.7.

The FWX, using data from Data Digger, measures the gender pay gap, women in full-time work, women’s employment participation rate, the tertiary education index, ASX20 board representation and the superannuation gender gap. The superannuation gender gap appeared to be diminishing slightly, with the report citing annual ABS statistics that showed a 6 per cent reduction in disparity between male and female super balances. That is, from 2013-14, women’s superannuation balances represented only 66 per cent of what men had, but in 2015-16 this had risen to 73 per cent.