Why the gender financial gap.....& what do we do about it?

[weeksy_j]

Here’s some really obvious structural things that need to be done:

1. Superannuation should be paid on all wages sizes, this takes care of the issue that super isn’t on <$450 per month (unless the employer does otherwise) because often

2. Women on all forms of leave, not just personal/parental but also maternity leave need full superannuation paid on top of the base wage - and if there is normal overtime in their shifts that should be accounted and topped up both at the wage level and the super level

3. Better financial education needs to be in place to ensure couples are using up both theirs and their partners’ deductible contribution threshold of up to A$25k super per annum (when you’re younger).

4. More real estate education around ensuring that partners have an equitable interest in all property assets, either directly or through their holding vehicle ownership (trust / company)

5. Great access to financial planning services for free which would help women significantly more given the inherent bias in the finance and financial services industry towards hiring men. This would be particularly important around maternity leave planning.

6. Great financial education as the school and the university level - apps and programmes like https://www.banqer.co/ (among others).

7. Default insurance schemes for women - so it’s ridiculous that if you don’t have an earned wage in a period and aren’t contributing to super that your insurance lapses. Only really affects women taking maternity leave.

Anyway, these are just some of my thoughts. But literally implement most of these asap as a matter of legislation and it would be sorted at retirement and in the event of any one of the terrible three D’s (death/divorce/disability).

[XinjaHustler]

10-4 @weeksy_j!

Education at home is important too. I remember, from a young age, my mum taught me about saving, investing and the importance of managing my own finances (#strongindependantwoman style). But sadly lots of my friends missed out on this and feel really lost in the world of personal finance.

Would also love to see gender pay parity being an open conversation in the workplace. Prior to Xinja, I worked in the corporate sector, where only A type personalities were rewarded with pay rises.

There’s a long way to go, but let’s keep the dialogue going until we get there!

[weeksy_j]

Totally I think @SportyXinja talked about this previously on LinkedIn and elsewhere but money has become a topic we don’t talk about anymore, and people see it as a taboo. It shouldn’t be.

As far as gender pay gap, that is extremely difficult, I agree. I always tell my female mentees - don’t ask don’t get. But that’s easy to say and harder to do. To combat that we should talk about what people want more regularly than the dreaded annual review.

[nanoxinja]

Thanks for the share @weeksy_j. I think banquer is an interesting opportunity to build into the curriculum. Generally women need to be more engaged from an earlier age.

So great to hear you’re encouraging mentees to step up and ask for more.
I hear from my peers, men and women go into pay negotiations during annual reviews very differently. Learning negotiation skills needs to start earlier too.

Repositioning the annual review as a series of conversations of what people really want, and how mentors can help you get there is an interesting prospect! And ‘pivots’ the conversation to growth rather than, just the dreaded development area download.

We were talking about financial planning services the other night! Great minds.

Thanks for all your thoughts @weeksy_j

[SportyXinja]

@weeksy_j and @nanoxinja - I’m a big advocate for bringing the topic of money out of the shadows and into everyday life. Much like @XinjaHustler my Mum was always good at talking openly about money with my brothers and I. She was very resourceful with her finances and taught me how to budget and save from a young age. On the investing side, I’ve had to teach myself and often feel I’m probably a bit too conservative. Either way it’s been a mix of these two factors that have made me confident with money.

In my personal experience, many of my girlfriends feel intimidated by or left out of the conversation when it comes to money.

So my friends and I take it upon ourselves to MAKE the conversation happen. I used to run regular events with my side-hustle ‘Own It’ where I would hold tea parties and share learnings on a particular subject. These days it’s evolved to ‘Girls Finance Club’ . This involves a monthly catch up with girls to discuss a topic. It could be something on finance like super, investing, savings or it could be something more broad like estate planning (wills) or fertility planning. Most of us aren’t experts but we’re keen to share what we know and we call on the experts in our social circle to host various months. Think of it as group learning.

My biggest take away from all of this is that money as a concept is SIMPLE and being financially literate can be accessible to all - you just need to decide to take an interest. You’ve got the power.

RE: negotiating pay. There’s a fun and engaging bot you can practice pay negotiation with. Yes, you read it right, a bot - #sotechno. It’s called ‘Ask Cindy Gallop’. You enter an american postcode (hint: 902910 anyone?) and you can practice asking for a pay rise. Check it out! https://www.facebook.com/AskCindyGallop/

[earthyxinja]

Hey @sportyXinja - I’d love to come along to one of your monthly club meetings! They sound like a fabulous idea.

While I’ve never felt intimidated when it comes to conversing about money, I do know I am very conservative when it comes to investing. I attribute that to the fact that I grew up in a family where we had to make every $ count, and not just because of my gender.

I think it is soooo important that everyone understands money and finance. While we never want to think about it, life can throw some pretty bad curveballs - divorce, serious illness and even death. The last thing anyone needs in these circumstances is to worry about finances. But I hear all too often that those left have additional stress in sorting through the family finances - without feeling confident to do so.

We need to ensure that the gender financial gap is closed. We need transparency around pay, recognition that women have an essential contribution to make in the workplace after they return from maternity leave and education to all from a young age. Just maybe there is hope that this generation can be a role model for the next, and that the kids today will wonder what all the fuss was about when they are my age!