What is Payday Super and how do you check your super is paid?

Since 1 July 2026, super is paid with your wages and must reach your fund within 7 business days of payday. What changed, what counts as qualifying earnings, the exceptions to the deadline and how to check your super is arriving.

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Since 1 July 2026, your employer has to pay your super for each payday, at the same time as your wages, instead of each quarter. Your super fund must receive it within 7 business days after payday. The super guarantee is still 12%, now worked out on your qualifying earnings. You can check it is arriving on your payslip, with your super fund, or in ATO online services through myGov.

What is Payday Super?

Payday Super is a change to how employers pay the super guarantee, the minimum super they must pay for eligible employees. The ATO says that from 1 July 2026 employers must:

  • pay employees their super guarantee for each payday, instead of quarterly
  • calculate super on an employee's qualifying earnings, a new term that brings together ordinary time earnings and other payments.

It is law. Parliament passed the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Act 2025 and the Superannuation Guarantee Charge Amendment Act 2025 in November 2025, with a start date of 1 July 2026.

The new rules cover earnings paid from 1 July 2026. Earnings paid up to 30 June 2026 follow the old quarterly rules.

What changed on 1 July 2026?

Before 1 July 2026 From 1 July 2026
When super must reach your fund Within 28 days of the end of each quarter Within 7 business days after payday
What super is worked out on 12% of ordinary time earnings 12% of qualifying earnings
Time your fund has to allocate or return a contribution 20 business days 3 business days, not counting the day it arrives
Who works out the charge on late super The employer, through a super guarantee statement The ATO

Payday Super doesn't change who gets super or the 12% rate. Under the old rules the quarterly due dates were 28 October, 28 January, 28 April and 28 July.

Does Payday Super change how much super you get?

The rate stays at 12%. What it is worked out on is now called qualifying earnings, which the ATO says include:

  • ordinary time earnings, meaning what you earn for your ordinary hours, including certain over-award payments, allowances, bonuses and paid leave
  • all commissions
  • salary sacrifice amounts that would have counted if you hadn't sacrificed them to super
  • earnings paid to independent contractors paid mainly for their labour.

Qualifying earnings don't include overtime.

If you salary sacrifice, the amounts you sacrifice are counted in the qualifying earnings your employer uses to work out your super. They don't count towards the super guarantee your employer has to pay to avoid the super guarantee charge. So your 12% is worked out on your pay including what you sacrifice, and your sacrifice can't be used to cover it.

There is a ceiling for high earners. The maximum contribution base for 2026-27 is $270,830, and it is now an annual figure. Once your qualifying earnings reach it in a financial year, your employer can stop paying the minimum super guarantee for you for the rest of that year. Up to 30 June 2026 the base was a quarterly amount, $62,500 a quarter in 2025-26. Super guarantee payments count towards your concessional contributions cap.

Our guide to negotiating a salary covers how to check whether an offer includes super.

When should your super show up in your fund?

Your fund must receive your super, with the details it needs to put it in your account, within 7 business days after the day you are paid. The ATO counts a business day as any day except a Saturday, a Sunday or a public holiday for a whole state or territory. So a public holiday that covers a whole state or territory isn't a business day anywhere, even if you work somewhere else. A holiday for only part of a state, such as Royal Hobart Show Day, is still a business day.

Once your fund receives a contribution, it has 3 business days to allocate it to your account or return it.

Your employer has longer in some situations:

  • A new job or a new fund. The first contribution for a new employee, or the first to a new fund after you switch, is due within 20 business days after payday. The same applies if you are rehired.
  • Bonuses and other out-of-cycle payments. If you are paid a bonus, commission, allowance, back payment or advance outside your usual pay cycle, the super on it is due 7 business days after your next regular payday.
  • Exceptional circumstances. The ATO can give employers more time after natural disasters and widespread IT or communication outages.

The ATO's own example is a $1,000 Christmas bonus paid on 7 December 2026 to an employee paid weekly, whose next regular pay is on 10 December 2026. The super on both payments is due on 21 December 2026.

How do you check your super is being paid?

Start with your payslip. Your employer must give you a payslip within 1 working day of payday, and it must show:

  • the super contributions made for you in that pay period, or the amount your employer intends to make
  • the name, or the name and number, of the fund they were paid or will be paid into.

Then check that the amount reaches your fund. You can see your employer's super contribution payments in ATO online services, which you log in to through myGov or the ATO app. Your fund's member statements, its online account or a phone call will also show what has arrived.

If the money has gone to the wrong fund, check which fund you nominated on your Superannuation standard choice form.

The ATO recommends doing its Super Health Check regularly, including the check of your super balance and employer contributions.

What can you do if your super is late or missing?

The ATO's steps are to confirm you are entitled to super, work out what you should have received, then check with your fund and ask your employer when they paid it, which fund they paid it to and how much they paid. If it still hasn't been paid in full to the right fund, you can report it with the ATO's online tool, Report unpaid super contributions from my employer.

From 1 July 2026, the super guarantee charge applies when super isn't received within 7 business days after payday, or the longer period where one applies. Under Payday Super the ATO assesses the charge itself, so employers no longer lodge a statement. The charge is worked out on qualifying earnings and includes interest that compounds daily at the general interest charge rate, plus an administrative uplift amount. Penalties are 25% or 50% of the unpaid charge, depending on any earlier penalties. The ATO then pays the super and interest into your account. It says not every referral results in collecting the unpaid super, and recovery can take time.

Super is also an entitlement under the National Employment Standards, so most employees covered by them can take court action under the Fair Work Act to recover unpaid super, unless the ATO has already started proceedings. The Fair Work Ombudsman says late payment may also breach the Fair Work Act or an award or enterprise agreement. Any super your award gives you above the super guarantee is a matter for the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Is super paid on leave paid out when you leave?

Not when you leave on a normal termination, such as resigning or retiring. The ATO says unused annual leave and leave loading paid out then are not qualifying earnings, so no super guarantee is paid on them. Our guide to resigning covers what goes in your final pay and when it is due.

This is general information, not legal or financial advice.

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