Make it easier to pay women more: Greens

The Australian Greens want to make it easier for businesses to pay women more superannuation than men.

The gender pay gap in the work place persists after retirement, says deputy Greens leader Adam Bandt.

On average, a woman will retire with $90,000 less in her superannuation account than a man.

Given women tend to live longer than men, this means they are being asked to survive for longer on significantly less money, he says.

If businesses want to pay women more superannuation than their male colleagues, they can apply for an exemption to anti-discrimination laws.

The Greens are planning to introduce a bill that would make this exemption unnecessary.

"The coalition says it doesn't like so-called red tape, well this will free this up employers to offer more generous terms to women," Mr Bandt told reporters at Parliament House on Wednesday.

The Greens will not try and rush the bill through parliament, as they have high hopes of getting the government and opposition on board with the "sensible reform", Mr Bandt said.

The Greens spokeswoman for women, Senator Larissa Waters, said it was time the government moved in the right direction on the important issue.

"Women in their older ages are being thrown into poverty," Senator Waters said.

"We're a wealthy nation, we don't need to be compounding that problem. Let's fix that."