Payday Super from July 2026: super now travels with every pay run

Payday Super is the rule, in force since 1 July 2026, that superannuation guarantee (SG) contributions must be paid each time wages are paid, not by quarterly due dates. The ATO calls the day wages are paid the qualifying earnings day, and the clock for super starts there.

The SG rate itself did not change: it is 12% of qualifying earnings for 2026-27 and stays at 12% from 1 July 2027 onwards. What changed is timing, the earnings base the rate applies to, how the annual ceiling works, and the charge for getting it wrong. Each of those four changes touches payroll software, cash planning and onboarding in a different way, so each gets its own section in this article.

Earnings paid up to 30 June 2026 stay under the old quarterly rules, so any payroll team closing the 2025-26 year still had one last quarterly cycle to finish. From the first pay run of July 2026, each pay event carries its own super deadline.

The ATO’s own about Payday Super page is the reference point. Some older ATO pages that still show quarterly dates predate the change and should not be relied on for earnings paid from 1 July 2026.

The deadline is counted as 7 business days after the qualifying earnings day, and the contribution must be received by the fund, not merely sent, by the end of that period. Business days exclude weekends and national public holidays.

A worked date makes it concrete. If an employee is paid on Thursday 15 October 2026, the business days run Friday 16 October, then Monday 19 to Friday 23 October, and finally Monday 26 October. The contribution must therefore be received by the fund by Monday 26 October 2026. On a salary of AUD 110,000 paid monthly, that single contribution is AUD 1,100.

If the same payday were a new employee’s first, the 20-business-day allowance would move the deadline to Thursday 12 November 2026. The allowance covers the first contribution only; from the second pay run the ordinary 7-business-day rule applies again.

The ATO’s payment deadlines page lists the situations where more time is allowed:

• 20 business days for a new employee’s first contribution, or the first payment to a fund the employee has newly chosen.
• Out-of-cycle payments, such as a one-off bonus, can follow the deadline of the next regular payday.
• Up to 20 business days in exceptional circumstances.
• Where deadlines overlap, they bunch to the later date.

Because clearing times vary, most payroll teams now release super on payday itself rather than waiting for the last day. Receipt by the fund is the test, and a payment stuck in transit on day seven does not count as on time.

From 1 July 2026, SG is calculated on qualifying earnings (QE): ordinary time earnings, all commissions, salary-sacrificed super contributions and other amounts previously treated as salary or wages for SG purposes. The ATO introduced the term to give one base for both the calculation and STP reporting.

The inclusion of salary-sacrificed amounts matters. An employee who sacrifices part of salary into super should not end up with lower employer SG as a result, because the sacrificed amount still counts in qualifying earnings.

The maximum contribution base also moved to an annual figure. For 2026-27 the annual figure is AUD 270,830, replacing the 2025-26 quarterly base of AUD 62,500. Once an employee’s qualifying earnings paid in the year reach the base, SG stops for the rest of that financial year. At 12%, the most compulsory super an employer owes for one person in 2026-27 is AUD 32,499.60.

The annual base changes the pattern for high earners with bonuses. Under the quarterly system, a large bonus in one quarter could hit that quarter’s cap; now the employer tracks cumulative qualifying earnings across the year and stops SG once AUD 270,830 is passed.

Take a senior hire earning AUD 300,000, with pay spread across twelve equal monthly instalments of AUD 25,000 from July. After ten pay runs, qualifying earnings stand at AUD 250,000 and SG paid is AUD 30,000. The eleventh pay run takes the total to AUD 275,000, so SG is due on only the AUD 20,830 that falls under the base, which is AUD 2,499.60. No SG is due on the June pay. The year’s total is AUD 32,499.60, the maximum.

If contributions miss the deadline or fall short, the employer becomes liable for the new super guarantee charge (SGC), which the ATO describes on its new super guarantee charge page. It is built from several components rather than a single penalty rate.

• The individual final shortfall: the SG that should have reached the fund.
• Notional earnings, calculated at the general interest charge (GIC) rate and compounded daily.
• An administrative uplift of up to 60%, which can be reduced by up to 40 percentage points for voluntary disclosure and a good compliance history.
• A choice loading of 25% of contributions, capped at AUD 1,200 per notice period, where the employer has not honoured the employee’s choice of fund.

Under the new design, the SGC components are tax-deductible, but GIC on late payment of the charge and late-payment penalties are not. The practical effect is that fixing a shortfall early costs less than letting interest and penalties build.

The ATO has said it will take a supportive approach during 2026-27 for employers adapting their systems. That is a statement about enforcement priorities, not an extension of the deadline, so a payroll that is still paying quarterly is accruing charge exposure every pay cycle.

Payroll software now has to report qualifying earnings and the super liability through Single Touch Payroll (STP) with each pay event, alongside the gross pay and tax already reported. The ATO uses this data to match what should have reached each fund against what did.

That matching changes how errors surface. Under the quarterly system, a missed contribution might go unnoticed until an employee checked their fund statement. With qualifying earnings and the super liability reported on or before each payday, a gap between the liability reported and the money received by the fund is visible much sooner, to both the ATO and the employee.

The Small Business Superannuation Clearing House, an ATO service used by many small employers, closed to new users on 1 October 2025 and closed completely from 1 July 2026. Employers that relied on it had to move to a commercial clearing house or payroll software that pays super directly.

Cash flow is the less visible change. An employer paying fortnightly now funds super 26 times a year instead of 4, and a monthly payroll 12 times. The total cost is the same 12%, but the cash leaves earlier, which matters for young companies and for overseas parents funding an Australian payroll by periodic transfer. The rate and its history are covered in the 12% super guarantee explained.

Onboarding needs tightening too. A new employee’s fund details must be collected quickly, because the 20-business-day allowance for a first contribution is the only slack the rules give. The broader payroll reporting cycle is described in Australian payroll, STP and PAYG.

For a company outside Australia, Payday Super means the Australian payroll must be funded in time for both wages and super on every payday. A parent company that settles its Australian costs monthly in arrears needs to check that the arrangement still lets super reach the fund within 7 business days.

Under Employer of Record Australia, the SG obligation sits with us, since we act as the legal employer of your staff. We run payroll, pay super to each employee’s fund on the Payday Super timetable and report through STP. Your side of the arrangement is to fund the payroll on the agreed schedule so that we can pay on time.

The change also affects how offers are explained to candidates. Australian employees can now see super arrive in their fund shortly after each pay, which makes any delay obvious to them. Quoting salary and super as separate figures in the offer letter avoids confusion when the first fund statement arrives.

Ask any provider three practical questions: when super is released relative to payday, how a new starter’s fund details are collected before the first pay, and how a late contribution would be identified and corrected. The answers show whether the provider has actually rebuilt its process for the new rules, or is still running a quarterly habit with a new label. For our full list of tasks, see the EOR Australia services page.

Employers should confirm that every pay run since July 2026 has released super promptly and that the payroll calculates SG on qualifying earnings against the annual base.

• Reconcile super paid against qualifying earnings for each pay run since 1 July 2026.
• Check that fund details for every current employee are valid, so payments are not rejected and returned.
• Confirm the payroll tracks cumulative qualifying earnings against AUD 270,830 for high earners.
• Review how bonuses and commissions paid outside the normal cycle are handled.
• Update onboarding so a new starter’s fund choice is captured before the first payday.

Any shortfall found should be corrected quickly. Voluntary disclosure can reduce the administrative uplift within the new charge by up to 40 percentage points.

Keep evidence of when each contribution left the payroll account and when the fund received it. If a question arises later about a single pay run, those two dates are what show whether the deadline was met, and they are far easier to pull from the system at the time than to reconstruct months afterwards.

Q01When did Payday Super start?+

A.On 1 July 2026. Earnings paid up to 30 June 2026 remained under the quarterly rules; earnings paid from 1 July 2026 carry a 7-business-day deadline.

Q02Does the 7-day deadline mean calendar days?+

A.No. It is 7 business days after the day wages are paid, excluding weekends and national public holidays, and the fund must have received the money by then.

Q03Did the super guarantee rate change with Payday Super?+

A.No. The rate is 12% of qualifying earnings for 2026-27 and stays at 12% from 1 July 2027. The timing, earnings base, annual cap and penalty regime changed.

Q04Is there extra time for a new employee?+

A.Yes. The first contribution for a new employee, or to a newly chosen fund, has 20 business days after the payday.

Q05Can the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House still be used?+

A.No. It closed to new users on 1 October 2025 and closed completely from 1 July 2026.