Australia – Women Lose More in Divorce

Divorce in Australia hurts both spouses financially, but women lose more in disposable income. This from the Financial Impact of Divorce in Australia, a joint project of AMP Life Ltd and an office called the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling at Canberra University. I got to the report by going to this page and clicking on the link that says “The AMP.NATSEM report on the financial impact of divorce.”

The report, subtitled “Love can hurt, divorce will cost,” focused on people age 30-49 on the theory that they are more likely to have young children. On average, those who remain married saw their income increase by about 4% in the one year of the study (an increase of $2500 for males and $2700 for females).

The story was different, however, for those who separated during the year. Males saw their income drop from $50,100 to $46,000, or more than 8%. Females saw their income drop from $50,300 to $28,900, a whopping 42% drop.

The figures become even more disparate when the report applies what it calls a “composition” adjustment, which is basically looking at the disposable income available in relation to the number of persons in the household. The adjusted figures showed a 53.66% increase for males and a 22% decrease for females.

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