Information Note1
This is the second in a series of information notes to showcase some results of Treasury’s new dynamic microsimulation Model of Australian Retirement Incomes and Assets (MARIA)2.
This note explores the expected evolution of superannuation balances at retirement over time. We use MARIA to analyse the projected trends over the coming decades and take a closer look at how the differences between genders are projected to evolve.
Assuming policy is held constant, we find that in the future retirees will generally have higher balances at retirement compared to retirees today as they will spend more of their working life with higher levels of compulsory superannuation.
Both men and women’s balances will increase over time. The gender gap in balances is expected to reduce, but remain significant. While women continue to have lower labour force participation and incomes than men, they will continue to make up a higher proportion of those with lower balances in retirement.
1The views expressed in this note are those of The Treasury and do not necessarily reflect those of the Australian Government. This note was prepared by Katarina Trinh, Mark Bott, Jacob Stone, Elliot Lavers and Nancy Luo in Revenue Group.
2MARIA simulates a range of life events each year for each individual in the model to project people’s income and assets in retirement.