Super to be paid the same day as wages from tomorrow, but nearly half of Aussies are not yet aware

From tomorrow, employers will be required to pay super at the same time as your wages instead of only once every three months – a gamechanger of a reform that will help to tackle the scourge of unpaid super.

But new research has found many Australians are still unaware that the new laws are about to start, prompting calls for Aussies to check their super in coming weeks to ensure their super is being paid on time, in full, every time.

An Ideally survey for the Super Members Council found 47% of Australians surveyed were not yet aware of payday super, and 12% of people surveyed said they had personally had unpaid super at some point in their working lives.

“Unpaid super is like a silent pay cut costing Australian workers billions each year and leaving some working Australians thousands of dollars worse off in retirement,” says the Council’s CEO Misha Schubert.

The Super Members Council’s analysis shows around 25% of working Australians have been underpaid or not paid super totalling $6 billion each year.

The analysis finds a typical worker was underpaid $1,730 in super in 2022-23, and could be more than $30,000 worse off at retirement due to the loss of compounding investment returns.

Payday super will be a gamechanger for tackling unpaid super, with more than 70% of people surveyed agreeing it will help them keep track of whether their employers are paying their super correctly, and more than half said they will now check their super more regularly.

The Council has long championed payday super laws as a key reform to help stamp out unpaid super, coupled with more proactive recovery of unpaid super by the ATO.

Unpaid super disproportionately hurts vulnerable groups. Among the hardest hit workers from unpaid super are women, who already retire with a quarter less super than men.

Younger workers, and low-income earners are also at risk: one in two workers who earn less than $25,000 a year have unpaid super entitlements.

The new laws will also make it much easier for employers to stay on top of their cashflow and worker entitlements, and level the playing field for all the businesses already doing the right thing by their staff.

The Australian Taxation Office has said it will adopt a graduated approach to enforcement as businesses transition to the new system in the first 12 months, focussing its resources on areas of highest risk.

With digital payroll and single touch payroll reporting systems now available to all employers, around 40% of businesses already pay super more frequently than quarterly.

ATO data shows that since payday super was announced, around 19,000 more employers are paying super more frequently than quarterly – a 2.4 percentage point increase in the share of employers doing so.

“Payday super is a gamechanger that will help stamp out the scourge of unpaid super, but right now too many Australians don’t know it’s about to start,” Ms Schubert said.

“That’s why it’s a hugely important reminder for people to start checking their super regularly — because every dollar paid on time today can make a big difference at retirement.”

“For employers making this transition, we appreciate the scale of the task and that’s why we support the ATO’s graduated approach on enforcement in the first 12 months.”