How Australia’s Parenting Policies are Failing Women and Our Economy
Summary
Equity Economics prepared a report with The Parenthood that finds Australian women are falling behind their international peers.
Ranked number 1 in the world for levels of educational attainment, Australian women fall to number 70 in the world for levels of economic participation. This poor performance is hurting our economy and hindering efforts to achieve equity between men and women.
Tracking the performance of Australian women in the labour market over time, they fall behind when they have children and never catch up. As a result, women retire with 47 percent less superannuation savings than men and single women are more likely to live in poverty in retirement.
In this report we look at the differences in policies to support parenting across four countries: Australia, Canada, Sweden and Germany. We find that other countries are providing more support in the form of paid parental leave and access to affordable early childhood education and care, and this is contributing to higher female participation and lifetime earnings.
Findings
The modelling in this report shows that if an average Australian woman had the same workplace participation patterns after having children as an average Swedish woman, she would:
earn an additional $696,000 over her working life; and
retire with an additional $180,000 in superannuation.
In order for Australian women to catch up to Australian men and women internationally, more investment is needed in paid parental leave, and early childhood education and care.
In the Parenthood’s February 2021 report: Making Australia the Best Place in the World to be a Parent Equity Economics modelled the benefits from significant investments in:
Universal health and wellbeing support for parents and children through pregnancy and the early years;
A parental leave scheme that provides one year of paid leave to be equally shared between both parents;
Free and high-quality ECEC for all families; and
Flexible and supportive workplaces with universal access to paid carers’ leave for sick children.
Our analysis found the combined impact of the above policies would increase female participation and productivity, reducing the gender gap in workforce participation and earnings. Equity Economics estimated that the cumulative impact of the proposed changes could increase GDP by 4.1 percent in 2050 or $166 billion. If Australia could lift female participation to that of males, it would increase GDP by 8.7 percent or $353 billion by 2050.
Read the full report
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