Payday super: what has changed for employees

Since 1 July 2026, employers have had to pay super each time they pay wages. Until then, the deadline was 28 days after the end of each quarter. Under the new rules, known as payday super, contributions should reach your fund within days of each pay.

A new law moved super to payday

Payday super was introduced by the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025. A companion bill updated the super guarantee charge, the amount an employer owes when super is late or unpaid. Both passed Parliament on 4 November 2025 and became law on 6 November 2025. The rules apply to wages paid from 1 July 2026, even for work done before that date.

The super guarantee, the minimum your employer must contribute, stays at 12 per cent, the level it reached on 1 July 2025. The ATO's Small Business Superannuation Clearing House, which some small employers used to pay super, closed permanently on 1 July 2026.

Super must reach your fund within 7 business days

The ATO's payday super guide sets out the main rules.

• A shorter deadline. Your fund must receive each contribution, with the details it needs to credit your account, within 7 business days after payday.
• A new earnings measure. Super is 12 per cent of "qualifying earnings": ordinary time earnings (broadly, pay for normal hours) plus commissions, salary sacrifice amounts and other payments that already attracted super.
• More time in some cases. A new employee's first contribution, or the first payment to a new fund after you switch, is due within 20 business days. Bonuses paid outside the normal pay cycle are due with the next regular payday's contribution.
• Faster processing by funds. Funds now have 3 business days to credit or return a contribution, down from 20.

Late payers now face a charge assessed by the ATO, with interest compounding daily and penalties of 25 or 50 per cent of the unpaid charge. The ATO says the aim is to fully compensate employees for any delay.

For the first year, to 30 June 2027, the ATO will treat employers who try to pay each payday and fix problems quickly as low risk. On 1 July 2026, an ATO Deputy Commissioner acknowledged it may take employers "a few pay cycles to get it right", so an occasional late payment in the early months is worth a polite question rather than alarm.

The change aims to reduce unpaid super

The ATO's most recent estimate, published on 3 November 2025, found around $6.2 billion of super guarantee went unpaid in 2022-23. That was about 6 per cent of the total employers should have paid, although the share had fallen for a second year in a row.

The ATO says paying super with wages gives it an earlier view of underpayments, so it can act sooner. Employers now also report the super they owe through Single Touch Payroll, the system that sends payroll details to the ATO.

How to check your contributions are arriving

Your payslip is the first place to look. Under workplace law, it must be issued within one working day of payday. It must show the super contributions for the pay period, or the amount your employer intends to pay, and the name of your fund.

Compare that with your fund's member statements, or ask the fund. ATO online services, reached through myGov, also show the contributions your employers have paid, under Super, then Information, then Employer contributions. The ATO suggests a super health check at least once a year, which includes looking for lost super and extra accounts.

If an amount seems to be missing, allow for the 7 business day window, or 20 for a new job or fund. Then ask your employer when and where they paid it, and check with your fund. If it is still short, the ATO has an online tool to report unpaid super. It will tell you whether it can recover the money, though not every report leads to a collection.

Contributions are invested sooner and the caps have risen

Because contributions now arrive with each pay, they are invested sooner. How they perform depends on your investment option and on markets, which can rise and fall.

It is also a good time to review your super more broadly. For 2026-27, the concessional cap, the yearly limit on before-tax contributions such as employer super and salary sacrifice, is $32,500, up from $30,000. The non-concessional cap, for after-tax contributions, is $130,000, up from $120,000.

The last quarterly payment, for April to June 2026, was due by 28 July 2026. It could fall in the same financial year as the first payday contributions. The Government has announced changes so that this overlap does not push employees over their concessional cap in 2026-27. When the ATO last updated its changeover guidance, on 10 August 2026, those changes were not yet law. If you salary sacrifice or make personal contributions, it may be worth checking this year's total with your adviser.

To talk through what payday super means for you, speak with your adviser. They can review your contributions and caps, and look at your super alongside investments you hold outside it, such as term deposits, bonds, managed funds and shares.

This article is general information only. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs, and it is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any investment. Figures are as published on the dates given. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Read the full risk warning