Raising the pension age has kept more women in the workforce for longer, but a study reveals that it may have contributed to Australia’s plunging fertility rates because their daughters know there’s no retired grandmother to help care for the children.
Economist Pelin Akyol from e61 said raising the age pension eligibility threshold from 60 to 67 between 1995 and 2023 in Australia had reduced the country’s birth rate by tying more older women up in work.
In 2023, Australia’s fertility rate hit a historic low of 1.5 births per woman, down from a rate of 1.6 the year before and short of the 2.1 required to maintain a stable population without migration.
The research found that only one in four grandmothers was still working when they qualified for the pension, compared to more than a third of grandmothers who had not reached pension age.
While the government has pledged to give families three days a week of subsidised childcare regardless of circumstances, Akyol said the high cost of formal childcare in Australia meant the availability of family members to babysit was important.
Source: Australia fertility rates: Women delay families when mothers keep working