The superannuation issues facing women in law

The gender pay gap, Barbetta said, is an evergreen topic that “doesn’t seem to be going away particularly quickly”.

“The gender pay gap starts very early in the legal sector. It starts from graduation, unfortunately,” she said.

“So women are already starting behind the eight ball.”

And because salary and super are connected, the economic effects of the gender pay gap are compounded. “Women tend to retire with around 20 per cent less super than men”, which Barbetta believes, for an “OECD country, that’s not a good statistic”.

Beyond this, if women choose to take time out of the workforce to build a family, their superannuation pauses.

While there have been some developments to support working families, such as the introduction of super on paid parental leave and increasing numbers of men taking paternal leave, “there are other structural deficiencies … because the sector is so young”.

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Barbetta said: “It was built at a time when there weren’t as many women in the workplace.”

Clearly, multiple factors are fuelling the continued imbalance. And in law, where career progression largely depends on building networks and staying up to date with professional news, the impact of taking time out of the workforce is cumulative.

According to Barbetta, “in the legal sector, there is a bias to not potentially award work to women who are pregnant and about to go on parental leave”.

She said: “You might not have access to really interesting work, really long-dated work that might limit your ability to build longstanding relationships with clients.”

This is mirrored at the conclusion of parental leave. Barbetta said: “That’s where these biases, perhaps unintentional discrimination, such as not sharing enough work around or sharing the load differently or assuming women aren’t coming back from parental leave, they really do just extend the gap.”

“That’s a real disadvantage that has far-reaching implications.”

One of these implications is burnout. The cyclic effect of financial burnout, of course, is that it causes mental strain, adding to the original distress. For women, the adjustment period after coming back to work, potentially with a child to provide for and feelings of being behind at work, can exacerbate this pressure.

There are things that can be done, Barbetta believes, “but it does require deliberate and proactive action to do so”.

Education, for one, can improve financial wellbeing. According to Barbetta, employers can also ensure superannuation providers are helping “lift the financial capability gap” and providing services that cater to the legal profession.

As surmised by Barbetta, the pay gap only means a greater superannuation gap. “When it’s extended across your career, that extends into your retirement,” she said.

Not only does this affect women at an individual level, but with fewer women overall in leadership and hiring levels, the issue remains deeply entrenched.

Barbetta remains positive that the newly introduced Payday Super laws, which will improve compound interest for employees, will help equalise the playing field.

But beyond this, she urges women to take a more active role in their superannuation and financial wellbeing.

“The earlier you engage with and think about your superannuation and make active choices, the better your outcome in retirement will be,” Barbetta said.

In the same episode, Barbetta discussed how and why women lawyers will benefit from the new Payday Super laws.