Written by:
Future Group
21 February 2025
Future Group is on a mission to lead the movement to use the power of money to invest, advocate and campaign for a future worth retiring into.
We have spent the last decade providing ethical investment products to people who want to invest their superannuation in line with their values. We have a vision that all retirement savings will be invested to drive positive social and environmental impact.
Future Group supports five superannuation brands, Future Super, smartMonday, Guild Super, Child Care Super and Verve Super. We provide a range of services including investment management and investment consulting. Today the Group supports over 314,000 members with over $16 billion in funds under management and advice across the five brands, making the Group one of the largest superannuation groups by the number of members served.
Australia’s superannuation sector, totalling $4.1 trillion, is the 4th largest pool of pension capital in the world. But in the workplace, women retire with 23.1% less super than men. The reasons for this retirement gap are known: women are less likely to make the senior ranks, are more likely to take time off for caring duties, they are also more likely to return to part-time work.
At Future Group, we use business as a force for good, both in terms of how we run our business, and how we take care of our team.
We embed our purpose into our policies from the ground up to reduce systematic inequality in our workplace. Our work to combat gender inequality is an important way we live our purpose.
In 2019 we started analysing our gender pay gap, setting targets, sharing progress and focusing on diversity and gender equity in our workplace.
October 2021: Future Group's median gender pay gap is 19.71%.
July 2022: After an acquisition, our pay gap almost doubles to 36.8%.
March 2023: Submit first WGEA Gender Equality report with a median gender pay gap of 33.8%.
September 2023: A remuneration review and other movements help narrow the gap to 26.43%.
March 2024: Our WGEA Gender Equality Report reflects a median pay gap of 15.7% and a significantly improved average pay gap of 1.9%, following a business restructure.
October 2024: Amid further business changes, our gender pay gap peaks at 19.9% median and 16.9% average. We mobilise the team to create clearer accountability and introduce proactive measures to better manage the pay gap.
January 2025: With targeted initiatives now in place to address the growing gap, we are seeing improvements. Median pay gap is 17.9% and average pay gap is 14.1%.
While progress continues, we remain committed to ongoing action and transparency in our efforts to close the gap further. We continue to refine our approach, embedding GPG considerations into every aspect of our decision making, from hiring and promotions to long term planning.
While our gender pay gap persists at Future Group, we are determined to continue making progress to close the gap. We continue to refine our approach, embedding gender pay gap considerations into our decision making at the moments that matter.
Paying team members with a base salary of less than $120K additional superannuation above the required Superannuation Guarantee (SG).
Calculating SG payments based on full-time salaries for carers who return to work in a part-time role due to their caring responsibilities.
Providing superannuation payments for up to 12 months per instance of parental leave.
Introduced a menstrual and menopausal leave policy providing employees who are unable to work due to menstruation and menopause additional leave. This is separate from sick leave and does not require a medical certificate. We were one of the first companies in Australia to implement this policy. The policy is open source and we encourage other businesses to adopt it*. We also submitted proposals to a Senate Committee in 2024 to push for menopause leave mandates in employment law, to help close the superannuation gap.
Implemented a transparent and supportive remuneration process.
Employees are provided with optional training around discussing salaries with their managers.
Throughout the remuneration review process, employees have access to the lowest, average and highest base salaries and percentage salary increases across the business, broken down by employee levels and seniority.
We have introduced a remuneration principle, capping the ratio of highest base salary to the lowest base salary at 5:1.
Adopted Pinpoint, a de-identified recruitment platform to reduce the risk of unconscious bias in the recruitment process and improve the diversity of our workforce.
Created “SuperGenders”, an employee resource group for women and non-binary people. This group provides a safe and supportive environment and a way to advocate for gender equality in the workplace.
Formed a Gender Equality Advisory Group, endorsed by our People and Remuneration Committee. This group has been formed to inform our Gender Equality Strategy, establish principles and guidelines to close the GPG, and outline our goals for the coming year.
We are committed to utilising Equidi, a tool that helps us monitor gender representation and pay gap in real-time. The tool helps us assess, measure and predict the gender pay gap, to better inform our decision-making processes. Shifting from a retrospective analysis, this allows us to pivot to a forward-looking approach and embed accountability into hiring, remuneration and promotion decisions, by considering the impact of a proposed salary across the entire organisation and different levels.
Reaffirming our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. More than an HR policy, DEIB is part of our DNA and helps define who we are as an organisation. We are refreshing our DEIB strategy to strengthen our remuneration and diversity reporting capability, promoting our DEIB resources and sharing regular updates on our DEIB work with all staff.
An integral part of our role design is to remove the barriers that disproportionately impact underrepresented and marginalised groups, including LGBQTIA+ folk, women and those with disabilities. We continually work to support diversity, streamline our recruitment processes and ensure that our people have the flexibility they need to do the best work of their lives.
At Future Group we recognise that parenting, the journey to it, plus the journey back to work is complex and not a one-size-fits-all. Our policy provides:
Equal paid parental leave benefits regardless of gender or carer status, with greater flexibility and no minimum service requirements
Increased parental leave entitlements from 14 to 20 weeks
Increased flexibility in how and when leave can be taken
Foster and kinship care leave
Paid pre-adoption, pre-fostering, pre-surrogacy and fertility leave
Surrogate leave
Additional leave for special circumstances
Career coaching sessions before, during and after parental leave
Flexible return to work benefits such as a four-day-work week with the same pay
Access to additional financial support
Other benefits such as continued accrual of annual leave and sick/carer’s leave entitlements for up to 12 months of each instance of parental leave
These are just a few of the ways that Future Group strives to advocate for and improve Gender Equality across our organisation and beyond.
*This policy may not be suitable for your organisation. Please obtain appropriate advice and consider the specifics when determining suitability for your organisation.
Statement issued by Future Group 21 February 2025.
