Until 30 June 2026, your July super could legally sit with your employer until late October, 119 days out of the market. Since 1 July 2026 it must reach your fund within 7 business days of payday. Here is what that timing shift is worth.
Adjust the variables below to simulate outcomes, compare rates, and see real-time projections.
A direct comparison of features, rules, limits, and eligibility requirements.
| Feature / Detail | Old Quarterly Super | New Payday Super |
|---|---|---|
Payment deadline | 28 days after each quarter ends: July wages could legally arrive on 28 October | Within 7 business days of every payday |
Time out of the market | 28 to 119 days per contribution, depending on where in the quarter you were paid | Roughly 10 calendar days at most |
Earnings base | Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE) | Qualifying Earnings (QE): standardised to close OTE classification loopholes |
SG rate | 12.0% | 12.0%: the rate is unchanged; only the timing moved |
Unpaid-super exposure | Up to 4 months of contributions at risk if the employer collapses | 1-2 weeks of contributions at most |
How fast you can spot a problem | Months: quarterly remittance made myGov checks nearly useless | Every pay cycle via myGov; the ATO cross-checks Single Touch Payroll in near real time |
Employer admin | 4 remittances a year | 26-52 remittances a year: real extra work for small business payroll |
Legal status | Repealed 1 July 2026 | Mandatory for all employers since 1 July 2026 |
Analyze the advantages and drawbacks of each financial product before making a decision.
Take Chloe, paid on 1 July 2025 under the old rules. Her employer's super deadline for that pay was 28 October: the quarter's end plus 28 days. Perfectly legal, and her 12% sat in the business's bank account for 119 days earning her precisely nothing.
Multiply that by every payday of a career and the old system quietly converted worker retirement money into interest-free business working capital. The reform closes the window to 7 business days after each payday: roughly ten calendar days, worst case.
The rate did not change: 12% before, 12% after. Every dollar of the improvement comes from time in the market, which is why the gain compounds rather than being a one-off.
Each contribution entering the market roughly seven weeks earlier on average sounds trivial. Compounded over a full career it is not: Treasury's own modelling says a 25-year-old on the median wage retires with about $6,000 more: a 1.5% larger balance, from timing alone.
No extra contributions, no extra fees, no market risk taken. The gain scales with salary and career length: start younger or earn more and the number grows; start at 50 and it shrinks to a few hundred dollars. The simulator above applies the timing gain to your own salary and horizon.
Worth knowing: the big funds committed to not charging per-transaction fees for weekly contributions, so the compounding gain is not eaten by processing costs.
The compounding story gets the headlines, but the enforcement story is worth more to the workers who need it. Unpaid super ran at an estimated $5.1 billion a year under quarterly remittance, concentrated in hospitality, construction and retail, and by the time a worker noticed, the employer was often insolvent.
Payday super shrinks the exposure window from four months of contributions to one or two pay cycles, and it gives the ATO a live enforcement trigger: Single Touch Payroll already reports every payday, so a payment that hasn't landed within 7 business days flags automatically. The reformed Super Guarantee Charge then stacks the unpaid amount, daily interest at the general interest charge rate, and an uplift of up to 60% for serious breaches.
Your move as an employee is one habit: after payday, glance at your fund balance or myGov. Under the old system that check told you about last quarter; now it polices this week. If a payment is missing, raise it with payroll first, then use the ATO's online 'report unpaid super' tool: with STP data behind it, these cases no longer take years.
There is no decision for workers to make here: quarterly super was repealed on 1 July 2026 and payday super is mandatory. The comparison matters because it tells you what to do now. Your July wages' super must reach your fund within 7 business days of payday, so open myGov after your next pay cycle and check that it did. Under the old system a missing quarter took months to surface; now a missing fortnight is visible immediately, and the ATO's automated SGC penalties start running from day eight. The workers who benefit most are exactly the ones who never check: casuals, hospitality staff and anyone whose employer has ever paid late.
Nobody, anymore. It survives only as the baseline that shows what the reform is worth.
Every Australian employee, mandatorily, and especially high-turnover industries where unpaid super was rampant.
The rules and figures on this page are researched from official primary sources:
