In recent years, the gap between the retirement fortunes of the sexes has narrowed substantially. Women's retirement savings have crept closer to men's in recent years, but a ruling on maternity leave arrangements means having babies will continue to interfere with superannuation for working mothers.
From the beginning of last month, wages or salary paid to people on parental leave were officially exempted from the compulsory super system.
The amendment was sought by the government to ensure various paternity and maternity leave schemes already operating would be in line with the federal funded scheme that begins in 2011.
The government scheme will provide 18 weeks' postnatal leave paid at the minimum wage. Super will not be paid, although the Rudd government has pledged to review this decision within three years of the scheme's introduction.
In the meantime, the amendment passed in June is a piece of bad luck for those with an employer who already pays maternity leave and who thought they could rely upon a draft ruling from the Australian Taxation Office last November.
The ruling suggested superannuation would have to be paid - along with wages - to employees on parental leave.
After the government released details of its scheme in the May budget, the ATO's draft ruling was withdrawn.
The amendment removes any ambiguity for employers, who may have been unclear about their obligations, says Centric Wealth's technical research manager, Anne-Marie Esler.
It also means any parent - and it's mostly mothers - who take leave after the birth of a baby will miss out on contributions that could reasonably grow into a sizeable chunk of retirement savings. This is given a female's child-bearing years generally precede the retirement age by a few decades.
Centric Wealth has calculated a 30-year-old female earning $120,000 a year who takes 12 weeks' maternity leave for her first child would miss out on $2492 in super payments. Say this woman has another baby three years later while still on a $120,000 salary and takes another 12 weeks' maternity leave.
Thirty years after the first child is born, the mother retires. The value of the two lots of missed contributions, assuming a 6.65 per cent return would be $25,842.
"The new regulations make it clear employers will not be penalised if the super isn't paid," says Esler. "I think women are entitled to think they have been dudded a bit."
Before compulsory super was introduced by the Keating government, retirement was a particularly sexist affair. Single women in particular, who were likely to have worked for decades to support their family, often had little savings to fall back on.
In recent years, the gap between the retirement fortunes of men and women has narrowed substantially, says the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia.
In 2006, men had an average super balance of $69,050 compared with $35,520 for women. Two years earlier, women had just $23,900 while men had $56,400. Extending the super guarantee to include parental leave would ensure the gap between men and women continues to narrow, says ASFA chief executive Pauline Vamos.
"Paid maternity leave is great and most people will concentrate on the funds in hand but we cannot ignore the fact that women still have to play catch up when it comes to funding their own retirements," Vamos says.
"Women still have broken work patterns and continue to be left behind."
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