The price women pay: less savings, less super and more financial stress than men
The average aspiring female property purchaser needs to work three more years than a man to accumulate a 20 percent deposit for a house, a new report has shown
3 min
Australian women are facing more financial stress than men, with the cost-of-living crisis and high interest rates pushing more than 7 million women into financial difficulty, a new report by Finder shows. Women also have less savings, superannuation and fewer investments than men, and six in 10 Australian women say they are enjoying life less than they were a year ago due to money worries.
As International Women’s Day gets underway on Friday, Finder’s personal finance expert, Sarah Megginson, said cost of living pressures are having an outsized impact on women. “Millions of women have found themselves experiencing higher levels of financial worry, especially as rents and mortgages have soared, putting a lot of pressure on your budget.”
The report found 69 percent of women are experiencing financial stress today compared to 49 percent of men. Housing expenses are causing the most strain, with 42 percent of female homeowners finding it hard to make their home loan repayments compared to 32 percent of men. Due to women earning less, the average aspiring female property purchaser needs to work three more years than a man to accumulate a 20 percent deposit for a house. Among renters, 48 percent of women surveyed by Finder are struggling to pay the rent compared to 40 percent of men.
Women also have 53 percent less cash savings than men. The average woman has $22,680 in savings and puts away $551 a month. The average man has $48,087 saved and squirrels away $832 per month. In January 2022, women had 15 weeks’ worth of savings. Two years later, this has fallen to less than 13 weeks, while men’s savings have marginally increased from 17.9 weeks’ worth to 18.3 weeks now.
Making ends meet for the basics of life means women are investing less than men, Ms Megginson said. The average Australian male investor has $88,775 invested in shares, which is double that of the average woman, who has $45,125 invested.
“The outsized impact of cost of living pressures on women has likely restricted their ability to invest,” Ms Megginson said. “Right now, the focus is on immediate needs – housing, everyday bills and groceries – which means longer-term wealth building gets put on the back burner. The research shows us that women are actually really great at keeping their debt levels down and saving – they generally outperform men in this regard. Still, their long-term wealth suffers.”
Last month the Federal Government released the first gender pay gap report comparing the wages and salaries of men and women employed at nearly 5,000 private sector companies. The results show that 50 percent of employers have a gender pay gap of more than 9.1 percent, and 62 percent of median employer gender pay gaps are more than five percent and favour men.
Diana Mousina, deputy chief economist at AMP, said that while unconscious gender biases in the workplace exist, other factors also contribute to the gap. This includes a lower female labour participation rate of 62.6percent compared to 71.1 percent for men, and a higher proportion of women working part-time. This is largely due to women taking a greater share of child care responsibilities within families. Women also dominate lower–paid industries that offer more flexible hours, such as health care and social assistance, while men dominate the lucrative construction, mining and energy industries where there is higher risk and less flexibility.
Ms Megginson said women retire with far less superannuation than men. The latest data published by the Australian Taxation Office shows men had about 20 percent more in superannuation than women on 30 June 2021. Yesterday, Federal Labor announced it would pay superannuation on top of government-funded paid parental leave from 1 July 2025 if it wins the next election.
Rising rates, construction inflation and shrinking investor confidence are pushing Australia deeper into a dangerous housing spiral that monetary policy alone cannot fix.
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Rising rates, construction inflation and shrinking investor confidence are pushing Australia deeper into a dangerous housing spiral that monetary policy alone cannot fix.
2 minThe Reserve Bank had little choice but to raise interest rates again this week.
Inflation was already proving stubborn before the latest Middle East instability added further pressure to energy prices and supply chains.
Housing inflation alone has averaged six per cent over the past year, remaining one of the single biggest contributors to CPI.
But while the focus remains on rates, the deeper problem is structural and far more dangerous.
Australia is not building enough homes, and the conditions required to fix that are deteriorating simultaneously.
Construction costs remain elevated. Builders are increasingly unwilling to absorb contract risk. Labour shortages persist.
Capital is becoming more expensive. And as borrowing capacity weakens and sentiment softens, fewer projects are becoming financially viable.
The result is a self-reinforcing cycle.
The RBA raises rates to fight inflation. Higher rates reduce development feasibility. Fewer projects start. Housing supply tightens further. Rents rise. Inflation persists. The RBA raises rates again.
The only long-term solution is supply, yet Australia remains nowhere near the National Housing Accord target of 240,000 new dwellings a year.
Completion continues to lag approvals, meaning many projects approved on paper are simply never making it out of the ground.
That gap matters enormously because housing is not just another sector of the economy.
Around two-thirds of Australian household wealth is tied to property, while the sector underpins millions of jobs and related industries. Weakness here quickly spreads beyond real estate.
We are already seeing signs of stress. Auction clearance rates in Sydney and Melbourne have softened, borrowing capacity has declined, and parts of the market are experiencing price corrections as confidence weakens.
At the same time, policymakers continue to debate tax measures such as changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts, despite fears that such reforms could drive private capital out of the rental market at precisely the moment when supply is most constrained.
This is the paradox at the centre of Australia’s housing crisis.
Demand for property remains extraordinarily high, yet the economic conditions required to actually build new housing are worsening.
The Reserve Bank cannot solve that problem alone.
Monetary policy cannot accelerate planning approvals, reduce construction costs or create more tradies. It can only raise the cost of money until something eventually breaks.
And increasingly, that “something” looks like the development pipeline itself.
Paul Miron is the Co-Founder & Fund Manager of Msquared Capital.
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