Payday Super is a change to how you calculate and when you pay your employees’ super guarantee. From 1 July 2026 you must pay employees their super guarantee on payday, at the same time as their salary and wages.
Super guarantee is:
- calculated as 12% of an employee's qualifying earnings (QE), which is a new term that brings together ordinary time earnings (OTE) and other payments
- paid to an employees’ super fund on payday and received by the super fund within 7 business days (unless an extended timeframe applies, such as for new employees).
Now
Super guarantee payments must be received by a super fund within 28 days of the end of the quarter, but can be paid quarterly or more frequently, e.g. monthly.
The due dates are 28 October, 28 January, 28 April and 28 July.
From 1 July 2026
Super guarantee payments must be paid to an employees’ super fund at the same time as paying qualifying earnings (QE), on payday, and received by the super fund within 7 business days.
There are some exceptions to the 7-day deadline, such as for new employees.
For more information see Payment deadlines for Payday Super.
Calculating super guarantee amounts
Now
The super guarantee amount is calculated as 12% of ordinary time earnings (OTE).
From 1 July 2026
The super guarantee amount is calculated as 12% of qualifying earnings (QE). QE includes OTE, salary sacrifice contributions and other amounts that are currently included in an employee's salary or wages for super guarantee.
For more information see What payments are qualifying earnings.