60% employer penalty bite in payday super

While the industry funds lobby has welcomed the Government moving on pay day superannuation implementation via new exposure draft legislation, the new regime makes clear to employers that they face significant penalties if they fail in their superannuation guarantee obligations.

The explanatory materials attaching to the proposed new legislation points out that it includes a “recalibrated SG charge that will better ensure employees are accurately compensated for lost earnings if their contributions are delayed”.

It said one of the components of this recalibrated SG charge is “an administrative uplift component” designed to “recognise and recoup the taxpayer cost of Australian Taxation Office activity to enforce the SG charge”.

As well, it said that it was designed to “incentivise prompt disclosure of SG shortfalls that minimises these costs.

“The Amending Bill provides that the administrative uplift default amount is 60 per cent of the total of the employer’s individual final SG shortfalls and individual notional earnings components for the QE [qualifying earnings] day,” the exposure draft materials said.

The Super Members Council (SMC) has welcomed the release of the Treasury consultation claiming that the legislation, when implemented, will be “a gamechanger to stem a $5 billion challenge in unpaid super”

“Crucial payday super laws will make the system fairer for both workers and businesses, so more workers are paid the super owed to them and businesses compete with each other on a level playing field,” SMC chief executive, Misha Schubert said.

“We’ll swiftly work through implementation with other key stakeholders to keep this crucial legislation moving forward and passed.”

SMC analysis released in a report on unpaid super in Australia found:

In one year, 2.8 million Australians missed out on $5.1 billion in legal super entitlements (2021-22)

Over 9 years, Australians have missed out on $41.6 billion in unpaid super,

The average affected worker missed out on $1,800 in super in a year.

Women, people in insecure jobs, and young workers are badly impacted by unpaid super at retirement.

Workers in small and micro businesses are more likely to be underpaid super.