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Why don’t women save?
According to a recent newspaper report (The Age 20 Jan) a survey of 1300 Australian women has found that they don’t save.
The survey, commissioned by the ANZ bank, found that one in five working women spend their entire pay packet, one in three women have less than $1,000 in savings and 55% have no long run financial goals in place.
Why should this be? Perhaps because of the position women occupy in the Australian economy.
Last year’s Australian Institute report, The impact of the recession on women, released in August 2009, found that women accounted for the majority of Australia’s hidden unemployment. ACTU President, Sharan Burrow commented that the report “painted a gloomy picture for working women amid the global economic downturn” with 50% of female workers working part-time and many struggling to pay bills.
Analysis of women’s spending patterns also reveals why they are often left with nothing to spare. Recent research by Goldman Sachs in the UK has found that women are much more likely than their male partners to spend their money on goods and services such as food and education for the family.
It had been hoped that the Federal Government’s National Employment Standards may have addressed the gender imbalance in workforce participation. On the surface, the new right to request an additional 12 months of unpaid parental leave seems like a step in the right direction.
Professor Marian Baird from the University of Sydney warns, however, that the changes could in fact exacerbate the silent discrimination against women who break their careers to have children even though such discrimination is illegal.
The CEPU is continuing to work with the ACTU and other unions to develop policies which will further the position of its women members and defend the rights of women in general.
For more information, contact the CEPU via feedback@cepu.asn.au