Payday Super

Payday Super came into effect on 1 July 2026. With Payday Super in place, businesses need to maintain their payroll processes to ensure compliance. 

The federal government announced payday super legislation to address ongoing issues with missed, late, and underpaid super contributions and ensure that Australians have secure retirement savings.

Qualified earnings (QE) are the amounts earned by employees for which the superannuation guarantee is calculated. QE is a new term that combines ordinary time earnings (OTE) and other payments.

QE is comprised of several components:

• Base salary and wages: Payments for ordinary hours of work.
• Lump sum payments: Payments in arrears and return-to-work payments.
• Commissions and bonuses: All commission payments and bonuses, except for bonuses earned from work performed outside ordinary hours.
• Paid Leave: This includes most leave types, such as annual, personal, and long-service leave.
• Allowances: Most allowances that cover skilled work, on-call, adverse conditions and retention. Does not include expense allowances.

What qualified earnings don’t include are:

• Overtime payments: Payments for earnings made outside of ordinary hours.
• Termination payments: Payments received, such as redundancy and unused annual leave.
• Expense Allowances: Where money is expected to be paid by the employee (meal allowances).

For more information, check out the ATO’s qualifying earnings factsheet.

If a business is late, misses, or underpays an employee’s super contribution, it will be liable for the superannuation guarantee charge.

Payday Super doesn’t just affect how employers pay employee super contributions; it also requires superannuation funds to process super guarantee payments faster.

Super funds have 3 business days to verify the payment and SuperStream data, and to allocate the payment to the employee’s fund or return it to the employer for correction.

There are some exceptions to the 7-day deadline:

1. First contribution to a new employee or super fund: allows for 20 business days after the relevant QE day.
2. Out-of-cycle payment: Due 7 days after the next QE event.
3. Exceptional circumstances: Gives 20 business days after the current QE event or the date ATO gives a determination.
4. Extension of one due date overlaps the next dude date: If the extension overlaps the second date, the second QE day is the same as the extended due date for the first QE day.

For more information checkout the payment deadline page on the ATO website.

The SG is the minimum amount of super you have to pay your employees and is calculated as a percentage of an employee’s wage or salary. On 1 July 2025, the SG will be calculated at a minimum of 12%.

A super clearing house is a facility that pays your employees’ super contributions to their respective superannuation funds.

All you have to do is send an electronic payment to the clearing house with your employees’ super contribution details, and the clearing house handles the rest.

Reckon Payroll can keep you compliant with our free super clearing house solution powered by Beam. Using Reckon and beam allows you to send your employee super contributions without the extra fees.

Beam is issued by Precision Administration Services Pty Ltd (Precision) (ABN 47 098 977 667, AFSL 246 604). Precision is wholly owned by Australian Retirement Trust Pty Ltd (ABN 88 010 720 840, AFSL 228 975), trustee of Australian Retirement Trust (ABN 60 905 115 063). Read the Beam PDS for Reckon before making a decision.