Their report outlines how, once a woman reaches retirement, having been paid less and thus saved less throughout her working life, she'll continue being worse off than a man. They discuss how she's more likely to live alone, need end-of-life care for longer, and have a lower quality of life than he does. She's more likely than a man to rely on superannuation and have no other income. She'll be less likely to own her own home. There won't be as many employment opportunities for her, and when there are, they'll be lower paid. Her KiwiSaver nest egg will be, on average, 12 percent less than a man's-and even though she statistically has better savings habits, it won't be enough to cancel out the gap. If she has a male partner and falls ill or develops high needs, he's more likely to put her into care; but, if their positions are reversed, she's more likely to look after him at home. If she's had a marriage break-up, she's more likely to be in hardship than men. In a working and financial world designed with men's needs as the default, her employment, insurance and pension schemes also discriminate against her. Retirement forecast tools, including KiwiSaver, are designed with men's life and career spans as the default. Women's paid working lives are very different, Dale and St John point out. They also say that the high cost of childcare means women often rely on grandparents so they can work; and most of that work is done by grandmothers, with women and grandmothers most likely to arrange it between them. Enriching though it may be to care for children, it does not add any money to women's retirement funds. And the women going to work are further penalised just for having children; research shows that even if a woman is working full time, her salary is stunted. Men do not lose any salary when they have children; in fact, they say it often increases.
Naomi Arnold, 'Bad then, worse now: How Covid-19 will hurt retired women', RNZ
