KiwiSaver gender gap widens

Women need to be encouraged to think about their retirement savings plans, and regularly check they are on track, ANZ’s general manager of wealth products says.

Sunday, March 8th 2015, 8:48PM

by Susan Edmunds

Ana-Marie Lockyer said there were big challenges for women planning their retirements.

“Women are coming from behind in saving for their retirement,” Lockyer said. “On average, women live longer and retire earlier, meaning their retirement savings need to stretch further.”

She said that nearly eight years into KiwiSaver, average balances for women members of the ANZ KiwiSaver Scheme were almost 28% lower than men at $8918 and $11,396, respectively.

She said the gap was getting bigger – a year ago it was a 26.5% difference.

“There is little to suggest that women will close this gap – in fact, it could widen over time as 85% of New Zealand women typically take career breaks to raise a family. We estimate that women on average are likely to retire with $144,000, compared to $203,000 for men – that’s significantly less money, particularly when you consider it potentially needs to last longer.”

Lockyer said some action would need to be taken if women were to have equal opportunity to save for their retirement.

Providers, employers and advisers should encourage women to have a plan and regularly check whether they were on track, she said.

Women could start making bigger contributions early in their career to make up for any periods out of the workforce, she suggested.

But she said from a national perspective, it was also important to think about how women were supported during maternity leave from an employer or government perspective.

Lockyer said it was not something that any country had worked out an adequate solution for yet.

Possible solutions could include shared contributions, so if one half of a couple was off work, their KiwiSaver contributions could be spread across both parties.

“We have to start thinking at a national level,” she said.

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