Tailoring the workplace is the key to keeping skilled women at work

• the superannuation system is too complex and too difficult to understand;
• the media and governments provide conflicting messages about the required savings for older age;
• the system is modelled on the male work experience and disadvantages women;
• some funds charge excessive fees;
• taxes on superannuation savings are too high; and
• financial advisers and fund managers are frequently perceived as biased and dishonest.

Of particular concern were the current policy shift in favour of savings in private superannuation schemes by neo-liberal governments and inadequate government regulation of the superannuation system. In this regard, the focus group participants expressed very clearly and unanimously that they wanted the government age pension to be maintained.

Some women in the focus group discussions also pointed out that planning for later life was difficult because of a rapidly changing society, lack of understanding of financial and investment matters, or a changing family situation where adult children moved back home or needed financial support. In particular, women in low-skilled occupations said that they found it difficult to plan ahead.

Policy implications

Policies for an ageing female workforce should be based on the values of inclusiveness, fairness, self-determination, and social justice. Choice is important to baby boomers, and social policy of the future will need to consider a wide range of options across all spheres of life. Further, social policy will have to take account of women's multiple roles - for example, as workers, mothers, daughters, grandmothers, partners in a couple relationship, friends, carers, citizens, and as individuals who want to achieve a balance in their lives and align their work with their values. Inclusive processes of consultation and citizen participation in the policy development processes are crucial.

Prolonging working lives

Prolonged working lives should be a choice. Equality in the workplace and favourable working and tax conditions might influence the work and retirement decisions of those who consider staying in paid employment past the age of 65 years. Tax incentives should also be used to persuade employers to recruit and maintain an age-balanced workforce.

More flexible workplaces to achieve a better work-life balance are important for the whole workforce, not just for women. However, flexibility at work is essential if mature female workers are to be encouraged to prolong their working lives.

Increased opportunities for skills development are required if older employees are expected to stay in the workforce for longer. Further, the topic of prolonging working lives needs to be brought into mainstream social and economic debate, with people from a diverse range of backgrounds given opportunities to contribute to such a discourse.

Government regulation should seek to achieve protection for particularly disadvantaged groups of older women, such as those in ill health, with few financial resources, and/or no significant social networks.

Those women who do not wish or are not able to be in paid employment beyond the age of 65 years often provide unpaid work for the benefit of their families and communities. Such unpaid work needs to be encouraged and supported to a much greater extent than at present. Additional opportunities for involvement in community work that take women's interests, skills, and experience into account are required, together with a culture of recognition. A culture of recognition should encompass the provision of training and material, human, and financial resources, and should make civil activities more visible. However, the provision of community work should not be a requirement for access to government income support.

Improving income systems

At present, Australia operates a highly targeted and punitive social security system. More than one in five Australians of working-age rely on this system for income support, most of these for the majority of their income. It is likely that this proportion will increase in the future. Therefore, it is proposed that a system be explored that would provide a guaranteed minimum income for all Australians. Such a basic income would be above the poverty line, without means test or work requirement, and available to all Australians. A range of different models exists already (e.g's here, here, and here) and an exploration should focus on a suitable model for Australian circumstances. Coinciding with such an exploration should be a gradual simplification of Centrelink benefits and a public discourse about all aspects of a future minimum income system.

Community education about financial planning and investment products should be increased. Governments should fund not-for-profit organisations for the provision of financial advice that is independent, honest and easy to understand. Further, the Australian superannuation system should be improved to eradicate inequities. In particular, this would include recognition of time out of the workforce for family reasons or study, increased transparency of financial transactions, removal of the $450 earnings threshold and front-end taxes, extension of the government co-contribution concept to people who provide unpaid caring work, legislation for full compensation in the event of theft or fraud, taxation concessions for people who postpone withdrawing superannuation savings, equal treatment of same-sex partners and heterosexual couples in all Australian States and Territories, and broader representation of women in decision-making positions across all sectors of superannuation.