Super Guarantee for Employers (2026): Payday Super, Rates and the New SG Charge

Superannuation guarantee has always been one of an Australian employer's biggest obligations. On 1 July 2026 it also became one of the most time-sensitive. Under Payday Super, the quarterly cycle has gone: super now has to land in each employee's fund within days of every payday, and late payments trigger a new, automatically assessed charge. This guide explains what small business employers must pay in 2026, who is entitled, how qualifying earnings and the new annual maximum contribution base work, how to choose the right fund, and what happens if a payment is late — with worked examples in Australian dollars.

Quick answer

Employers must pay super guarantee of 12% of each eligible employee's qualifying earnings, on top of wages. Since 1 July 2026, under Payday Super, each contribution must be received by the fund within 7 business days of payday (20 business days for a new employee's first contribution). Late or short payments attract a super guarantee charge that the ATO assesses itself.

• Rate: 12% for 2026-27 — the final legislated step

• Maximum contribution base: A$270,830 a year for 2026-27, replacing the quarterly base

• Offer a choice of fund within 28 days; request the stapled fund if the employee doesn't choose

• The ATO's Small Business Superannuation Clearing House closed on 1 July 2026

• New SG charge: shortfall + notional earnings + an uplift of up to 60% + any 25% choice loading

What changed on 1 July 2026

Until 30 June 2026, employers could pay super guarantee quarterly, with deadlines 28 days after each quarter. Many small businesses paid it once a quarter in a lump, and some employees waited months — or never got paid — before anyone noticed. Payday Super was designed to close that gap by tying super to the wages it is calculated on.

Quarterly super vs Payday Super

Rule	Quarterly (to 30 June 2026)	Payday Super (from 1 July 2026)
When super is due	28 days after the end of each quarter	Received by the fund within 7 business days of each payday
What super is calculated on	Ordinary time earnings, plus sacrificed amounts (since 2020)	Qualifying earnings (OTE plus salary sacrificed amounts)
Maximum contribution base	Quarterly figure	Annual figure — A$270,830 for 2026-27
If you're late	Lodge an SG statement; SGC with 10% interest and admin fee	ATO assesses the new SGC per payday; no SG statement
Is the charge deductible?	No	Yes, for QE days from 1 July 2026
ATO clearing house	Available to small businesses	Closed

When super is due

Quarterly (to 30 June 2026)

28 days after the end of each quarter

Payday Super (from 1 July 2026)

Received by the fund within 7 business days of each payday

What super is calculated on

Quarterly (to 30 June 2026)

Ordinary time earnings, plus sacrificed amounts (since 2020)

Payday Super (from 1 July 2026)

Qualifying earnings (OTE plus salary sacrificed amounts)

Maximum contribution base

Quarterly (to 30 June 2026)

Quarterly figure

Payday Super (from 1 July 2026)

Annual figure — A$270,830 for 2026-27

If you're late

Quarterly (to 30 June 2026)

Lodge an SG statement; SGC with 10% interest and admin fee

Payday Super (from 1 July 2026)

ATO assesses the new SGC per payday; no SG statement

Is the charge deductible?

Quarterly (to 30 June 2026)

No

Payday Super (from 1 July 2026)

Yes, for QE days from 1 July 2026

ATO clearing house

Quarterly (to 30 June 2026)

Available to small businesses

Payday Super (from 1 July 2026)

Closed

The changeover had its own deadline. Super for the April–June 2026 quarter was due by 28 July 2026. Any super payment received on or after 29 July 2026 is applied under the Payday Super rules, even if you meant it for the June quarter. If you missed the June quarter deadline, the old SG statement process applies to that quarter, so talk to your adviser or the ATO about lodging it.

Who you must pay super for

Since 1 July 2022 there's been no minimum earnings threshold — the old A$450-a-month test was removed. Super guarantee applies to almost every employee, whether full-time, part-time or casual, including temporary residents and employees who also receive a pension. The exceptions are narrow:

• employees under 18 are only entitled for a week in which they work more than 30 hours;
• private or domestic workers, such as a nanny or housekeeper, are only entitled if they work more than 30 hours a week;
• some non-resident employees working overseas and some foreign executives are excluded.

Contractors can be entitled too. If you pay someone mainly for their labour — under a contract that's principally for their personal work and skills — they're treated as an employee for super guarantee purposes, even if they have an ABN and send invoices. Company directors who receive directors' fees are also entitled. Getting this wrong is a common source of super debts when the ATO reviews a business.

Business owners: do you have to pay super for yourself?

It depends on your structure. Sole traders and partners aren't employees of their own business, so there's no super guarantee obligation for their own drawings. They can make personal contributions and may be able to claim a tax deduction for them, within the A$32,500 concessional cap. Company directors are different: if your Pty Ltd company pays you a salary or directors' fees, you're an employee of the company for super guarantee purposes, and the company must pay SG on that salary under Payday Super just as it does for staff. Dividends aren't qualifying earnings, so an owner who takes all their income as dividends has no SG — but also builds no super unless they contribute personally. Trustees of family trusts that pay distributions rather than wages are in the same position.

How much: qualifying earnings and the maximum contribution base

Under Payday Super, super guarantee is 12% of an employee's qualifying earnings for each payday (the ATO calls each payday a "QE day"). Qualifying earnings are made up of:

• ordinary time earnings — pay for ordinary hours, including over-award payments, shift loadings, commissions, casual loading and most allowances and bonuses tied to ordinary hours;
• salary sacrificed amounts that would otherwise have been ordinary time earnings, so sacrificing salary into super doesn't reduce the employer's SG obligation — a rule that has applied since 2020 and is now built into the definition.

Overtime paid for hours outside ordinary hours, and reimbursements of expenses, are generally not ordinary time earnings. The ATO's ordinary time earnings guidance has a long table of specific payment types; check it for anything unusual in your payroll, such as termination payments, leave loading or bonuses.

The maximum contribution base caps the earnings you must pay super on. From 1 July 2026 it's an annual figure — A$270,830 for 2026-27 — calculated as the concessional contributions cap of A$32,500 × 100 ÷ the SG rate, rounded down to the nearest A$10. For each payday you compare the employee's year-to-date qualifying earnings with the annual base; once they pass it, no more super guarantee is required that year. Few small business employees reach it, but owner-directors and senior staff can.

The Payday Super deadline in practice

The deadline is about when the fund receives the money with enough information to allocate it, not when you press "pay". The ATO is clear that if a payment is rejected or delayed, the deadline isn't extended. Funds now have three business days to allocate or return a contribution, which is why you need correct member details from the start.

Payday Super deadlines — examples

Payday Friday 9 Oct 2026

Contribution must be received by the fund by Tuesday 20 Oct 2026 (7 business days)

New employee's first payday 9 Jul 2026

First contribution due by 7 Aug 2026 (20 business days)

Same employee paid again 30 Jul 2026

Normal rule applies — due by 11 Aug 2026

28 July 2026

Final due date for April–June 2026 quarterly super

The 20 business days window applies to the first contribution for a new employee, for an existing employee moving to a new fund, and for a rehired employee. After that, the normal 7 business days applies. Business days exclude weekends and public holidays, so check holidays in your state when a payday falls before a long weekend.

Payday Super applies to every payment of qualifying earnings, including out-of-cycle payments such as a bonus or back-pay paid separately. If you pay weekly, you now make 52 super payments a year instead of four. In practice, most payroll software sends contributions through a clearing house or SuperStream automatically when you finalise the pay run.

What Payday Super does to cash flow

The biggest practical change for many small businesses isn't the paperwork — it's cash flow. Under quarterly super, a business could hold super money for up to four months before paying it. Take a business with a monthly payroll of A$40,000 in qualifying earnings: SG is A$4,800 a month. Previously the July–September super of A$14,400 wasn't due until 28 October. Now each A$4,800 leaves the account within seven business days of each payday, so roughly A$9,600 to A$14,400 of working capital that used to sit in the business is gone for good. Plan for that in your cash flow forecast and stop treating super money as a short-term buffer.

Choosing the fund: choice, stapling and verification

Getting the fund right is now as important as getting the amount right, because a contribution that bounces counts as late.

Setting up super for a new employee

1. 1

   Offer a choice of fund

   Give eligible new employees the Superannuation standard choice form within 28 days of their start date, unless they've already told you their chosen fund.

   Superannuation standard choice form
2. 2

   Request the stapled fund if they don't choose

   Once the employment relationship is in ATO systems — via a TFN declaration or an STP pay event — request their stapled super fund through ATO online services or your payroll software.

3. 3

   Use your default fund only if there's no stapled fund

   Pay to your nominated default fund only when the ATO tells you the employee has no stapled fund.

4. 4

   Verify the member account

   Before the first payment to a new fund, send a member verification request so the fund confirms the account can accept contributions.

5. 5

   Pay within 20 business days

   Make sure the first contribution reaches the fund within 20 business days of the first payday.

If you pay into a fund the employee didn't choose and you didn't request their stapled fund when you should have, you're liable for the super guarantee charge — including the 25% choice loading — even though you paid the money. Self-managed super funds need extra care: you must have the fund's ABN, bank details and electronic service address before paying.

Common mistakes under Payday Super

The same few problems cause most late or short payments. The first is paying on the old quarterly rhythm out of habit, which now makes almost every contribution late. The second is forgetting out-of-cycle payments — a bonus paid mid-month, back-pay after an award increase, or a termination payment that includes ordinary time amounts — which each create their own QE day and deadline. The third is bad member data: a misspelt name, wrong date of birth or closed account means the fund rejects the money, and the clock keeps running while you fix it. The fourth is treating contractors as outside the system when they're really paid for their labour. Finally, many small businesses still calculate super on the wrong base, leaving out casual loadings, commissions or salary-sacrificed amounts. A quick monthly reconciliation of what your payroll says was due against what funds confirm they received will catch most of these before the ATO does.

Worked examples in A$

These use 2026-27 rules. Names are illustrative.

1. Weekly wages. Jess earns A$1,200 a week in ordinary time. Super guarantee each payday is 12% × A$1,200 = A$144. If she's paid on Friday 9 October 2026, the A$144 must reach her fund by Tuesday 20 October.

2. Salary sacrifice. Tom earns A$90,000 a year and sacrifices A$10,000 into super. A common payroll mistake is calculating SG on the post-sacrifice A$80,000. The sacrificed amount is part of qualifying earnings, so SG is 12% × A$90,000 = A$10,800 a year, on top of Tom's A$10,000 sacrifice.

3. A high earner and the annual base. An operations director earns A$300,000, paid A$25,000 a month. After ten months her year-to-date qualifying earnings are A$250,000. In month eleven, only A$20,830 of the A$25,000 is under the A$270,830 base, so SG for that month is 12% × A$20,830 = A$2,499.60. In month twelve no SG is required. Her total SG for the year is A$32,499.60.

4. A late payment. Suppose a payroll error means A$500 of super for one payday arrives a month late. The ATO assesses the super guarantee charge on that QE day: the A$500 shortfall, plus notional earnings at the general interest charge rate (say about A$10 for the delay), plus an administrative uplift of 60% of A$510 = A$306. If the ATO hasn't issued you an SGC assessment it started in the previous two years, the uplift drops by 20 percentage points to A$204, making the charge about A$714. Disclosing it quickly yourself can cut the uplift further. The figures are illustrative — the ATO calculates the actual amounts.

The new super guarantee charge

If a contribution doesn't reach the fund in full and on time, you owe the super guarantee charge (SGC) for that QE day. You no longer lodge an SG statement: the ATO uses Single Touch Payroll data and fund reporting to identify shortfalls and issues an assessment. The charge has four parts:

• individual final super guarantee shortfall — the super that wasn't paid on time, reduced by any late contributions that reach the fund before the assessment;
• individual notional earnings — interest on the shortfall, compounded daily at the general interest charge rate;
• administrative uplift — initially 60% of the shortfall plus notional earnings, reduced by 20 percentage points if the ATO hasn't initiated an SGC assessment against you in the previous two years, and by up to 40 percentage points if you make a voluntary disclosure, depending on how quickly you do it;
• choice loading — 25% of the contributions for a QE day where you didn't meet the choice of fund rules.

If you don't pay the assessed charge on time, general interest charge applies and the ATO can impose penalties of 25% or 50% of the unpaid charge, depending on your history. Directors can become personally liable for unpaid SGC through director penalty notices. One improvement for employers: the SGC for QE days from 1 July 2026 is tax-deductible, although general interest charge on late payment and penalties are not.

The first-year compliance approach

The ATO has published PCG 2026/1, setting out how it will treat employers in the first year of Payday Super, to 30 June 2027. Its message is that employers who genuinely try to comply won't be the focus of compliance action. It will prioritise employers who haven't paid the minimum super guarantee or haven't paid it at all. If you find an error, the most important step is to pay the correct amount to the fund as soon as you realise, before the ATO issues an assessment for that mistake.

Reporting, records and paying the right way

Your STP pay events now report qualifying earnings and the super liability for each payday, and funds report contributions received, so the ATO can match the two quickly. Keep records of each employee's fund choice or stapled fund result, member verification responses, qualifying earnings and the contributions paid and received for five years.

With the ATO clearing house closed, choose a payment method that reliably hits the deadline: payroll software with integrated SuperStream payments, a commercial clearing house, your default fund's employer portal, or direct payments to funds using SuperStream. Allow for processing time — a clearing house that takes three business days to pass on money leaves you only four.

Payday Super checklist for 2026

0/9

• Payroll software updated for qualifying earnings and the annual maximum contribution base
• Super paid with every pay run, not quarterly
• Payment method that reaches funds within 7 business days, allowing for clearing-house delays
• Choice form given within 28 days; stapled fund requested where no choice made
• Member verification done before the first payment to any new fund
• Contractors paid mainly for labour checked for SG entitlement
• Under-18s and domestic workers checked against the 30-hour test
• Rejected or returned contributions followed up the same week
• Records kept for five years

Share Print

Official links

• Payday Super — payment deadlines7 and 20 business day rules
• Super guarantee rate12% from 1 July 2025
• Maximum contribution baseAnnual base and worked example
• The new super guarantee chargeComponents, uplift, penalties
• Stapled super funds for employersWhen and how to request
• Superannuation standard choice formGive to new employees within 28 days

What to do next

Check your last few pay runs: did every contribution reach the fund within seven business days, and is salary sacrifice included in the calculation? If not, fix the payroll settings and pay any shortfall straight away. Make sure wages themselves are right using the minimum wage guide, withhold tax using the 2026-27 PAYG withholding tables, and report PAYG on your BAS. The budget planner helps you set aside 12% on top of every wage.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice — confirm on the official source or with a professional.

Frequently asked questions

What is the super guarantee rate in 2026?

The super guarantee rate is 12% of an employee's qualifying earnings. It reached 12% on 1 July 2025, which is the final legislated step, so it stays at 12% for 2026-27. Super is paid on top of wages, not deducted from them.

What is Payday Super?

Payday Super is the system that started on 1 July 2026. Instead of paying super quarterly, employers must pay super guarantee at the same time as wages, and contributions must be received by the employee's fund within 7 business days of each payday. A first contribution for a new employee or a new fund gets 20 business days.

What happens if I pay super late under Payday Super?

The ATO assesses a super guarantee charge for each late or short payday. It's made up of the shortfall, notional earnings at the general interest charge rate, an administrative uplift of up to 60% and, where relevant, a 25% choice loading. Penalties of 25% or 50% can apply if the charge isn't paid. From 1 July 2026 the charge itself is tax-deductible.

What is the maximum contribution base for 2026-27?

From 1 July 2026 the maximum contribution base is an annual figure of A$270,830 for 2026-27. You don't have to pay super guarantee on an employee's qualifying earnings above that amount in the financial year. It's worked out from the concessional contributions cap of A$32,500, so it keeps employer SG within the cap.

Do I have to pay super for casual or part-time staff?

Yes. Since 1 July 2022 there's no minimum earnings threshold, so super guarantee applies to almost every employee, including casuals and part-timers. The main exceptions are employees under 18 and private or domestic workers, who are only entitled if they work more than 30 hours in a week. Some contractors paid mainly for their labour are also entitled.

Can I still use the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House?

No. The ATO's Small Business Superannuation Clearing House closed permanently from 1 July 2026 as part of the Payday Super reforms. Employers now pay through payroll software, a commercial clearing house, their default fund's employer portal or direct to funds, using SuperStream.

Sources & verification

Figures on this page were checked against the sources below when it was last reviewed on 9 October 2026. Each rate and limit is stored once with its own official source and review date, and official update channels are monitored daily so changes are picked up. How we verify

1. 1.Super guarantee (key superannuation rates and thresholds) — Australian Taxation Office · accessed 9 October 2026
2. 2.Payment deadlines for Payday Super — Australian Taxation Office · accessed 9 October 2026
3. 3.Maximum contribution base — Australian Taxation Office · accessed 9 October 2026
4. 4.The new super guarantee charge — Australian Taxation Office · accessed 9 October 2026
5. 5.Our compliance approach for Payday Super — Australian Taxation Office · accessed 9 October 2026
6. 6.The Small Business Superannuation Clearing House is closing — Australian Taxation Office · accessed 9 October 2026
7. 7.Payday Super: how to manage super during the changeover — Australian Taxation Office · accessed 9 October 2026
8. 8.Offer employees a choice of super fund — Australian Taxation Office · accessed 9 October 2026
9. 9.Stapled super funds for employers — Australian Taxation Office · accessed 9 October 2026
10. 10.Contributions caps — Australian Taxation Office · accessed 9 October 2026