Unpaid super bill balloons as payday super urged for next July

Yasmine Raso

Senior Journalist, Financial Newswire

16 July 2025

The Super Members Council (SMC) has urged the Federal Government to commit to legislating the proposed 1 July 2026 start for payday super, in the wake of new data showing the unpaid super bill has blown out to $5.7 billion.

Analysis conducted by the association on recently released tax data from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) found the amount super remaining unpaid has grown by $600 million compared to the previous year. This has accumulated to more than $47 billion over the past decade.

The average Australian full-time worker affected missed out on $1,730 super in the 2022-23 financial year, with this rising to $2,220 in the Australian Capital Territory and to $2,030 in the Northern Territory.

There were more than one million workers in New South Wales who were affected by unpaid super, with a further 850,000 affected in Victoria.

SMC deputy chief executive, Georgia Brumby, said by 1 July next year, Australians would have been waiting for three years since payday super was first proposed.

“The message from Australians to all Parliamentarians is loud and clear on passing payday super laws: just get on with it,” she said.

“Each week these laws are delayed, Australians are made $110 million poorer in retirement which means less money to pay the bills after a lifetime of hard work.

“The sooner this legislation is introduced and passed, the more time and certainty it will give businesses and the super payment system to prepare – so all workers can get paid their super on time and in full.

“Payday super will not only stamp out unpaid super – it’ll put nearly $8,000 more in the average Australian’s pocket at retirement, thanks to more frequent payments and the power of compounding.”

The SMC’s submission provided during the public consultation round on payday super draft legislation opened earlier this year made several recommendations to support employers through the transition, including:

• “extending the payment processing deadline from 7 calendar days to 7 business days,
• taking a phased approach to ATO enforcement in the early stages to give comfort to employers genuinely trying to do the right thing, and
• letting employers validate a worker’s correct super account details at any time to prevent processing errors.”