It seems to have become a tradition that every time an increase of the superannuation guarantee (SG) is proposed it is met with lively predictions of doom and disaster.
Employers will become burdened to the extent that they will need to fire staff, while small companies will tumble over like dominoes.
And Australian wages will be reduced to leave the average person struggling to pay their electricity bill.
It is peculiar then that none of these predictions have become a reality during previous increases of the SG.
In fact, there is more evidence the increase in national savings through superannuation is helpful in maintaining a healthy economy.
It is true. I'm biased; hopelessly conflicted. After all, I earn my money thanks to the growing superannuation industry.
But so are many of the critics of the SG increase.
The fact the SG has sparked a $1.4 trillion industry that employs a significant part of the workforce and provides a welcome diversification to an economy heavily reliant on its natural resources seems to have escaped many.
But let's look at what we, as an industry, can agree on.
A proper retirement system is designed to provide employees with a decent income in their pension phase.
I'm going out on a limb here, but it seems everyone - from a union-raised super fund trustee to the commission-dependent financial adviser - agrees that it takes a replacement rate of about 70 per cent of your pre-retirement income to maintain your lifestyle into old age - the best approximation of a consensus description of the term 'decent income'.
So where do we stand?
Shock and horror, we are not there yet.
But according to a report compiled by the Australian Centre for Financial Studies, on behalf of the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees, the increase of the SG from 9 per cent to 12 per cent will have a dramatic effect on the retirement savings of the average Australian family.
For a couple raising children, where one partner has a period of absence from the labour market from the age of 30 to 40, the impact of the increase in SG is an increase in the replacement ratio from 50 per cent to 70 per cent.
In other words, an SG level of 12 per cent will for the first time provide a level of retirement income for Australian families that we all agree is the bare minimum.
The question, therefore, must not be if we should get to 12 per cent, but how quickly can we get there?
