Living longer on less: Women, paid work, and superannuation in Victoria, Australia

This article examines the paid work experiences of women aged more than 55 with less than Aus$100,000 in superannuation living in Victoria, Australia. In Australia, superannuation is a compulsory retirement scheme in which employers make contributions to employees’ superannuation accounts. This research attempts to discover how participants’ experiences of paid work were linked to their positions of low superannuation. We interviewed 32 participants, 18 from a metropolitan and 14 from a regional setting, and analyzed the results qualitatively. We found that although the participants experienced considerable discrimination in the paid workforce, which contributed to their low superannuation balances, the more important factors were outside the workforce, preventing them from accessing well-paid work. These factors included the deprioritization of women’s paid work compared with men’s, unpaid care, disability, ill health and older age, and violence.