What is the Super Guarantee?

What it is

Superannuation is Australia's compulsory retirement savings system, and the Super Guarantee is the law behind it, the minimum your employer is legally required to contribute on your behalf. It started at 3% back in 1992 and has climbed steadily since, reaching 12% on 1 July 2025, which is the final step under current legislation. There's no further increase scheduled beyond that.

Payday super: what changed from 1 July 2026

This is the biggest recent change to how SG actually gets paid. From 1 July 2026, most employers must pay your super every payday rather than waiting until the end of the quarter, and your fund generally needs to receive it within a handful of business days. It's designed to stop unpaid super sitting with employers for months at a time, and it gives you a much closer to real-time view of your balance rather than a quarterly surprise. Alongside this shift, the maximum super contribution base, the earnings ceiling above which employers aren't required to pay SG, moved from a quarterly figure ($62,500 a quarter in 2025-26) to a single annual cap of $270,830 for 2026-27.

Who's entitled

If you're 18 or older, you're entitled to SG regardless of how many hours you work, full-time, part-time and casual employees are all covered on the same basis. Under 18, you need to be working more than 30 hours a week to qualify. There's no minimum earnings threshold either, the old $450 a month rule was scrapped back on 1 July 2022. Some contractors count too, if your contract is mainly for your labour rather than a result or deliverable, you may legally be an employee for SG purposes even if you invoice as a sole trader.

What counts as ordinary time earnings

SG is calculated on your ordinary time earnings (OTE), which includes your base salary or wages for ordinary hours, paid leave, allowances for your normal duties, bonuses and commissions, shift loadings and over-award payments. It doesn't include overtime, or most termination payments and lump sums. Whether a job ad's headline salary includes super or sits on top of it changes what you actually take home, our Salary & Take-Home Pay Calculator lets you toggle that and see the difference.

A worked example

Jordan earns a $80,000 base salary with no overtime, so their annual OTE is $80,000. SG at 12% works out to $9,600 a year, or $2,400 a quarter, paid on top of the $80,000, not out of it. If Jordan also earns $5,000 in overtime that year, that portion is excluded from the SG calculation entirely, it only applies to ordinary earnings.

If your employer doesn't pay

Employers who miss a payment have to lodge a Superannuation Guarantee Charge (SGC) statement and pay three things: the unpaid super shortfall (calculated on a broader measure of salary and wages than OTE), nominal interest of 10% a year, and an administration fee of $20 per employee per quarter. Unlike a normal super contribution, the SGC itself isn't tax-deductible for the employer, which is part of why it's treated as a genuine penalty rather than just a late payment. If you suspect your employer isn't paying, you can report it through the ATO's tip-off channel.

Common misconceptions

"Super is included in my salary." Depends entirely on your contract, some packages are quoted inclusive of super, others have it paid on top, always check which one you're looking at. "Casual workers don't get super." Wrong, anyone 18 or over gets SG on their OTE regardless of employment type. "My employer can delay paying as long as it eventually arrives." No, there are strict due dates, and the SGC applies the moment a payment is late, regardless of intent. "Salary sacrificing reduces my employer's SG obligation." It shouldn't, SG is legally calculated on your ordinary time earnings before any salary sacrifice is deducted, so sacrificing more of your own pay shouldn't shrink your employer's compulsory contribution. Worth confirming with your employer regardless when you set an arrangement up.