do you have unpaid super?

There are steps you can take if you think your employer isn’t paying your super, or isn’t paying you enough super.

Thanks to the super guarantee, most of us working in Australia are entitled to superannuation*. And it doesn’t matter if you work full time, part time, casually or if you’re a temporary resident, you get super.

Super is paid into your account at a rate of your qualifying earnings. As part of the super guarantee, employers must pay super contributions to employees at the same time as their salary and wages. Super payments must be received by the employee's super fund within 7 business days of payday.^# Even though it may be a long time until you can get your hands on it, remember that super is your money. So, it’s in your best interests to check you’re getting every dollar that’s due to you.

Check you’re being paid

The easiest way to check you’re being paid super is to log in to your super account and have a look at transactions or recent activity over the year. It should clearly show regular contributions going in.

If you don’t have online access, check your most recent statement and look at the transactions. Otherwise, contact your super fund directly.

If things don’t look quite right

While most employers try to do the right thing, they sometimes miss payments or stop paying.

If you don’t see money going in, or there’s not as much going in as you expect, you’ll need to bring this up with your employer. Conversations about money can be difficult, so keep it simple by asking these three questions:

1. How often are you paying my super?
2. How much super are you paying me?
3. Which fund are you paying my super into?

If you don’t get a good outcome from your conversation, the next step is to report unpaid super to the Australian Tax Office (ATO). They will then investigate your unpaid super for you. You’ll need to provide your tax file number as well as your employer’s details such as their Australian Business Number (ABN). This can usually be found on your payslip or by searching on ABN Lookup. The tax office can also investigate unpaid super confidentially. 

*Super is not payable to those who are both under 18 and working less than 30 hours per week.

^#The payday super law introduces a new concept of ‘qualifying earnings’ to calculate SG entitlements. This includes Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE), salary sacrifice superannuation contributions and other amounts currently counted as salary or wages under the Superannuation Guarantee Administration Act. Further information is available on the ATO website at ato.gov.au.