AIST renews call to measure menopause impact

Oksana Patron

7 February 2023

The Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) has renewed its call to measure menopause impact against the backdrop of rising costs.

AIST’s chief executive Eva Scheerlinck said AIST’s previous estimate of between $17 billion and $35 billion was conservative and the peak body for profit-to-member funds had adjusted its assumptions on the basis of new data and broader analysis of the impact on women.

In a pre-Budget submission, AIST recommended the Government provide funding to the Office for Women to measure and report on the extent to which menopausal symptoms impact women’s employment and retirement decisions, super and retirement incomes.

“AIST bases its estimates on publicly available data sources but recommends that the Government undertake its own comprehensive analysis of the heath and economic impacts of menopause on women’s workplace participation and retirement decisions,” Scheerlinck said.

“This is a great time for this work to be done because women retire with 40% less superannuation than men and they live longer. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”

According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data, the average retirement age was 52.1 for women and 59.5 for men.

A woman retiring at the average age for a man would accrue an additional 7.4 years of income and superannuation which, based on the average income for women aged 45-54 amounted to lost salary and wages and foregone superannuation of more than $577,512.

According to ABS data, 694,143 women were in the workforce in November 2022 and, by the Government’s own estimates, 28% of menopausal women would have symptoms severe enough to impact their participation in the workforce.

This translated to a collective economic loss of $15.2 billion per year and more than $112.2 billion in foregone earnings and super over 7.4 years.