In financial services, many firms are focused on providing bottom-line value to their clients. What most of them forget is how to properly communicate that value.
A good PR strategy has a greater impact on the bottom line than most firms realise. This book shows how to put in place an effective PR program in the financial services industry, and how great communications can add significant value to a firm.
Between them, Claudia Pritchitt and Leeanne Bland have over 50 years’ experience in public relations, communications, and marketing. Here, they explain the key tools needed in an effective communications strategy as well as why plain English is imperative in the jargon-heavy world of financial services.
Record low pay gap and stronger female employment fuels gender equality progress, but latest Financy Women’s Index shows tax reform and super strategies will help close lifetime wealth gap.
Australia has accelerated progress in gender financial equality in the June quarter, driven by a record-low gender pay gap and strong employment conditions for women, according to the latest Financy Women’s Index (FWX).
The FWX rose by 0.9% to 78.67 points in the June quarter. The improvement was fuelled by a narrowing of the national gender pay gap to an all-time low of 11.5% and robust growth in female employment, where women's monthly hours worked grew at five times the pace of men's (1% vs 0.2%). However, the gains were tempered by a stall in female appointments to ASX 200 boards.
Crucially, the new report moves beyond tracking the problem to modelling the solutions. It details two existing superannuation strategies that demonstrate how some individuals can significantly close their personal lifetime super gap. The report also makes a strong case for incentivising the appeal of these strategies to combat cost of living pressures via systemic tax and superannuation reform to reward caregiving.
“The June quarter results are a story of two steps forward, one step back," said Bianca Hartge-Hazelman, CEO of Financy. "While we have seen fantastic momentum in closing the gender pay gap to a record low, the stall in board appointments is a red flag. It shows that progress isn't guaranteed, and complacency is a real danger.
“While we celebrate the record-low pay gap, it's a point-in-time measure. The real challenge is the accumulated lifetime retirement savings gap that women face, particularly after taking career breaks for care. Our report models practical superannuation strategies, like early contributions and super splitting, that can help women close the super gender gap.
“But individual effort isn't enough. We are calling for systemic tax reform to properly reward unpaid care, and for gender equality to be considered as part of economic strategy to boost national productivity.”
To provide an actionable roadmap, the June report models two superannuation strategies:
Early savings: The first model shows that a woman who starts her career on a lower salary than her partner can virtually eliminate the final retirement superannuation gap by contributing an extra 5% to her fund in the first decade of her career.
Super splitting: The second model shows that by combining the early savings strategy with ‘superannuation splitting’ - where a partner splits 85% of their super contributions with her for five years during her career break for care - she can completely close and even reverse the superannuation gap by retirement.
The report's "Wish List" advocates for tax reforms that reward care, including tax credits for additional super contributions for those in female-dominated industries and tax incentives for spousal super contributions for primary caregivers.
Overall, the Financy Women’s Index reported gains across key economic indicators.
The FWX Employment sub-index rose to 74.5 points, reflecting a significant increase in hours worked for women. Female monthly hours worked grew by a robust 1.0%, five times the pace of male employment growth (0.2%).
The gender gap in underemployment also narrowed substantially, as the female underemployment rate fell while the male rate rose. This helped the FWX Underemployment sub-index jump to 74.1 points from 69.4 points in March.
Further bolstering the result was a welcome improvement in the gender pay gap, which narrowed to a record low of 11.5% from 11.9%. The positive momentum reflects the ongoing effects of increases to the minimum wage, which disproportionately benefit female-dominated sectors. Consequently, the timeframe to close the gender pay gap has improved to 21.5 years.
In a concerning development, progress on corporate boards stalled. The number of women on ASX 200 boards dipped to 38.1% in the June quarter, down from a record 38.4% in March. The Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) has noted a “plateauing of progress” among top companies that have reached the 40:40:20 gender diversity target.
Despite the dip, gender equality on ASX 200 boards remains the most achievable goal, with a projected timeframe of 4.8 years.
Bradley Distinguished Professor at UniSA’s Centre for Workplace Excellence, Carol Kulik, said the Financy Women’s Index demonstrates that gender inequality is a multi-faceted problem, with myriad indicators.
“If we don’t address gender leadership gaps alongside gender pay gaps, the progress we see in narrowing the national gender pay gap may be short-lived. In particular, research demonstrates that gender diverse boards trickle down to generate more gender diversity in senior management – and in turn gender diversity in senior management is associated with smaller gender pay gaps.”
The most significant barriers remain in areas shaped by deep societal norms. The timeframe to equality in Unpaid Work remains stubbornly high at 42.4 years. The greatest challenge is in Education, where, based on expected career earnings relative to qualifications, equality is a staggering 348.6 years away.
A Wish list for economic reform and productivity
To build on the current momentum and tackle structural barriers, the Financy Women's Index has issued a wish list for economic reform aimed at unleashing productivity:
Universal childcare and modernised school hours: Invest in quality, universal childcare and better align school hours with modern work schedules to remove significant barriers for working parents.
Make gender-balanced flexible work the standard: Promote and incentivise flexible work arrangements for all genders to help dismantle social norms that anchor women to unpaid care, part-time work and a geographical spatial leash.
Apply a gender lens to all economic policy: Integrate a gender perspective into all economic discussions, from productivity to tax reform, to better utilise women's skills and educational attainment.
Reform tax and superannuation to reward care: Implement targeted reforms to tax and superannuation, such as super boosts for those in female-dominated industries and incentives for spousal contributions, to help close the lifetime earnings gap.
