Australia / Guides / Super guarantee: the rate and the payment clock
Australia · guideSuper guarantee: the rate and the payment clock
The short answer
The super guarantee (SG) rate is 12%, the final step of a legislated schedule that reached its ceiling on 1 July 2025. Until 30 June 2026, SG was paid quarterly, with contributions due to be received by the employee's fund within 28 days of each quarter end. From 1 July 2026, that quarterly system was replaced by Payday Super: employers must now pay SG on the same qualifying earnings that triggered it, with the contribution required to reach the fund within 7 business days of payday. Missing either the old 28-day mark (for periods before 1 July 2026) or the new 7-business-day mark triggers the super guarantee charge, which is non-deductible and now calculated and assessed directly by the ATO rather than self-reported.
Key facts — verified dates on each
The rate: 12%, and how it got there
The super guarantee rate is the minimum percentage of an employee's earnings base an employer must contribute to super — ordinary time earnings (OTE) for every year up to the Payday Super changeover, and qualifying earnings (QE) from 1 July 2026 onward. The rate itself rose in annual 0.5-percentage-point steps under a schedule legislated years in advance — 10.5% in 2022–23, 11% in 2023–24, 11.5% in 2024–25 — and reached 12% on 1 July 2025, the final scheduled increase, while OTE was still the earnings base. Barring new legislation, 12% is now the standing rate; there is no further step-up built into the current schedule.
Because the increase lands on a fixed date rather than a pay-cycle boundary, the rate that applies is whichever one was in force on the date wages were actually paid — a pay period that straddles 30 June does not get pro-rated between two rates. Payroll software update timing is the most common source of underpayment in a rate-change year, not any ambiguity in the rule itself.
What changed on 1 July 2026: from quarterly to Payday Super
For every quarter up to and including the one ending 30 June 2026, SG ran on a quarterly cycle: employers calculated the 9.5%–12% (rate depending on year) of ordinary time earnings owed for the quarter and had until 28 days after quarter end for the fund to receive it — 28 October, 28 January, 28 April and 28 July were the four fixed due dates, moving to the next business day when a due date fell on a weekend or public holiday.
From 1 July 2026, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Act 2025 replaced that cycle with Payday Super. SG is now calculated on "qualifying earnings" — a broadened base that folds in ordinary time earnings and other amounts, including salary-sacrificed super, that previously sat outside the OTE definition — and must reach the employee's nominated fund within 7 business days of the payday that generated it, rather than by a fixed quarterly date. There are limited exceptions to the 7-business-day window, including for new employees during the period before their fund is confirmed.
The practical shift is in frequency: an employer running fortnightly payroll now has a live SG obligation every fortnight, not four fixed dates a year. A missed or short contribution on any single payday is now its own compliance event, checked against that payday rather than absorbed into a quarterly total.
What counts as "on time" under Payday Super
A contribution is on time if it is received by the employee's super fund — with enough information for the fund to allocate it to the right member account — within 7 business days after the payday. Payday is the date the qualifying-earnings payment is actually made to the employee, not the pay period it relates to. Routing the payment through a clearing house does not by itself satisfy the deadline; the money and the matching data need to land at the fund within the window.
The 7-business-day standard sits inside an ATO risk-rated compliance approach for the first year of Payday Super, running 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. The ATO has said it will take a facilitative approach to employers who are genuinely attempting to pay on the new cadence and correct errors quickly, and will direct compliance attention toward employers who are not attempting the change at all, not fixing errors, or not paying super. That facilitative posture is a first-year transition setting, not a permanent relaxation of the 7-business-day rule.
What "late" now triggers: the new super guarantee charge
For paydays from 1 July 2026 onward, an employer no longer self-assesses and lodges a super guarantee statement when a payment is missed or short. Instead the ATO calculates the shortfall itself and issues a notice of assessment for the super guarantee charge. The charge is non-deductible and includes interest that compounds daily at the general interest charge rate, plus an administrative uplift that can vary with the employer's compliance history and may be reduced through a voluntary disclosure made before the ATO identifies the shortfall itself.
For quarters ending on or before 30 June 2026, the old quarterly SG charge regime still applies to those historical periods — a missed 28-day deadline under the old system is assessed under the old mechanics, not retrospectively folded into Payday Super.
Determining whether a specific payment is short, whether a worker was correctly classified as an employee for SG purposes, or how to respond to an ATO assessment is a liability question that belongs with the business's registered BAS or tax agent — the agent who lodges and deals with the ATO on the business's behalf. Payroll processing can calculate and reconcile the SG figure inside the payroll system each cycle; it does not extend to ascertaining a disputed SG position or communicating with the ATO about one.
Where Single Touch Payroll fits
Single Touch Payroll (STP) reporting sends the ATO the wage and super information for each payday, and Payday Super leans on that same reporting cadence — the ATO now has near-real-time visibility into what SG should have been paid against what STP shows was reported. That visibility is part of why the compliance model shifted from an employer-lodged quarterly statement to an ATO-issued assessment: the data to calculate a shortfall is already arriving every payday.
STP reporting itself is lodged by the business's registered agent, not prepared and filed independently outside that authorisation. Getting the underlying payroll data — qualifying earnings, SG calculated at the correct rate, contributions reconciled to what actually reached the fund — ready on the same cadence as STP is the operational work that sits ahead of the agent's report; the report itself remains the agent's to lodge.
The figures, and when we checked them
These numbers change by year or by notification. Each one shows the date we last verified it against the source — if that date looks old, check the source before relying on it.
Questions on this
What is the super guarantee rate right now?
12% of an employee's qualifying earnings. That rate took effect on 1 July 2025 as the final step of a schedule that had been legislated years in advance, and there is no further scheduled increase built into current law.
Is super still paid quarterly?
Not anymore. Quarterly SG, with contributions due within 28 days of quarter end, applied for every quarter up to and including the one ending 30 June 2026. From 1 July 2026, Payday Super replaced it: SG must reach the employee's fund within 7 business days of each payday.
What are the old quarterly SG due dates, for periods before the change?
28 October, 28 January, 28 April and 28 July, moving to the next business day when the date falls on a weekend or public holiday. These dates still govern quarters ending on or before 30 June 2026.
What counts as "qualifying earnings" under Payday Super?
A broadened earnings base introduced with Payday Super that brings together ordinary time earnings, commissions, salary-sacrificed super and other amounts that previously sat outside the older ordinary-time-earnings definition used for quarterly SG.
What happens if an SG contribution is late under Payday Super?
The employer no longer self-lodges a super guarantee statement. The ATO calculates the shortfall and issues a notice of assessment for the super guarantee charge, which is non-deductible, accrues daily-compounding general interest charge, and can carry an administrative uplift — reducible through a voluntary disclosure made before the ATO finds the shortfall itself.
Is the ATO strict about the 7-business-day deadline in the first year?
The ATO has said it will take a risk-rated, facilitative approach for the period 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 toward employers genuinely attempting the new cadence and fixing errors quickly, while directing compliance action at employers not attempting to change, not fixing errors, or not paying at all. That is a first-year transition posture, not a change to the underlying 7-business-day rule.
Who decides whether a specific super guarantee shortfall exists or how to respond to an ATO assessment?
That is a liability determination and a matter of dealing with the ATO, which sits with the business's registered BAS or tax agent — the agent authorised to lodge and correspond with the ATO on the business's behalf, not with payroll processing itself.
Does Payday Super change who lodges Single Touch Payroll reports?
No. STP reporting continues to be lodged by the business's registered agent. Payday Super changes how often SG itself must be paid and how a shortfall is assessed; it does not change who holds the STP lodgment authorisation.
Does the payday clock apply to super paid on top of an existing salary package (salary sacrifice)?
Salary-sacrificed super is included in the qualifying earnings base that Payday Super's SG calculation and 7-business-day deadline apply to, which is a change from the older ordinary-time-earnings definition used under the quarterly system.
If a pay period straddles 1 July and a rate or rule change, which rate applies?
The rate and rules in force on the actual payday apply to that payment — a pay period is not pro-rated between an old and a new rate or system when it crosses the change date.
Primary sources
- ATO — Super guarantee: key superannuation rates and thresholds
- ATO — Super guarantee due dates (quarterly, to 30 June 2026)
- ATO — About Payday Super
- ATO — Payment deadlines for Payday Super
- ATO — What happens if you don't pay super correctly (the new super guarantee charge)
Last reviewed 2026-08-14. Statutes and schedules change — the sources above are authoritative, this page is orientation.
Want this handled rather than read about?
A scoping call decides what fits. We are a consulting firm — lodgments and agent work run through registered BAS and tax agents. Whoever signs and files stays yours.