Around 200,000 families each year are set to benefit from new laws coming into effect on 1 July to pay superannuation on Commonwealth Paid Parental Leave.
The reform, legislated last year, will see the federal government pay 12% super when working parents take leave to care for their babies, helping to narrow the gender super gap for women.
The ANMF has lobbied for the changes for years to help nurses, midwives and AINs who have suffered inequity through the loss of super while taking time out of the workforce to have children.
Super Members Council CEO Misha Schubert said the start of pad parental leave superannuation contributions marked an historic achievement that would deliver compound investment returns throughout parents’ lives.
“This is a huge stride forward to tackle women’s retirement inequity,” she said.
“This reform will make millions of women thousands of dollars better off in retirement, helping to narrow the gender super gap. It’s going to be transformative to start to tackle gender inequity in retirement.”
Having helped secure super on PPL, the Council’s lobbying will turn to another key lever to narrow the gender super gap – a boost to the Low-Income Super Tax Offset (LISTO), a super tax refund for low income workers that mostly benefits women that has been frozen for 13 years and not increased in line with tax brackets or rises in the Super Guarantee rate.
SMC analysis shows that a female worker in the bottom 20% of wage earners could be up to $30,000 or 12% better off at retirement by lifting the LISTO to $810 per year and paying it to workers earning up to $45,000.
