The ATO put Australia’s superannuation guarantee gap at $6.2 billion for 2022-23. That is money employers were legally required to pay into employees’ super accounts and did not.
Most of it was never dishonest. Quarterly payment deadlines meant an employee could work for months before anyone noticed a payment had not arrived, and by the time it surfaced the business had often folded or the employee had moved on.
That system ended on 1 July 2026. Employers must now pay superannuation with every pay run, and the ATO can see almost immediately when it has not arrived. It is the biggest change to the system since compulsory super began, and it makes checking your own position considerably more worthwhile.
This guide covers how to check what you have actually been paid, what to do if there is a gap, and what happens once the ATO is involved.
What changed on 1 July 2026
Under the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Act 2025, employers must pay super at the same time as salary and wages, and the contribution must be received by your fund within 7 business days of payday. There is a limited exception allowing 20 business days for the first contribution for a new employee.
Three other things changed with it:
- The base broadened. Super is now calculated on qualifying earnings, a new term that brings together ordinary time earnings with other amounts including commissions and salary sacrificed contributions.
- Detection is automatic. Employers report through Single Touch Payroll every pay run, and the ATO matches that against what funds actually receive. A shortfall shows up without anyone reporting it.
- The penalty changed. Missing the seven day window triggers the superannuation guarantee charge, which now includes interest compounded daily and an administrative uplift that varies with the employer’s compliance history.
The June 2026 quarter was the last one paid under the old quarterly rules. Anything owing from earlier periods is still recoverable, and is dealt with below. Our guide on payday super from 2026 covers the change in more detail.
What you are entitled to
- The superannuation guarantee rate is 12 per cent of qualifying earnings.
- There is no minimum monthly earnings threshold. The old $450 a month rule was removed on 1 July 2022, so casual and part-time workers are entitled regardless of how little they earn.
- Employees under 18 are entitled where they work more than 30 hours in a week.
- Some contractors are entitled too. If you are paid mainly for your own labour under a contract, you may be treated as an employee for super purposes even if you invoice and have an ABN. This catches a lot of people who assume they are excluded.
Salary sacrificed amounts cannot be used to reduce your employer’s obligation, and they now form part of the qualifying earnings base. Our guide on salary sacrifice arrangements covers how they should work.
How to check
- Log in to myGov and link the ATO. Under super, you can see your accounts and the contributions reported for each, by financial year. This is the single fastest way to see the whole picture, including accounts you had forgotten.
- Check your super fund directly. Your fund’s online portal or member statement shows what was actually received and when.
- Compare against your payslips. Your payslip should show the super amount accrued for that period. If your payslips show super accruing and your fund shows nothing arriving, that is the gap.
- Confirm it is the right fund. Money paid to an old or incorrect fund looks like unpaid super until you find the other account. This is the most common false alarm.
- Allow for timing. Under the new rules a contribution should arrive within seven business days of payday, so a very recent pay may not have landed yet. Older periods are a different matter.
Keep your payslips. They are the primary evidence if you need to raise a claim, and they are much easier to gather while you are still employed than afterwards.
Before you escalate
Most gaps have an innocent explanation, and raising it directly is usually faster than any formal process. Common causes:
- Paid to a previous fund, because your employer had old details or a stapled fund was used
- An error in your member number, so the money is sitting unallocated at the fund
- A payroll or clearing house error, particularly during the transition to the new rules
- Super calculated on the wrong earnings base
- A genuine administrative oversight
Ask your employer or payroll team in writing for the payment dates, the amounts, the fund and the receipt or payment reference. A reasonable employer will produce it. An unwillingness to produce it is itself informative.
If it is genuinely unpaid
- Put it in writing. Set out the periods, the amounts you believe are owing and what your payslips show. Keep a copy.
- Report it to the ATO. There is an unpaid super enquiry available through myGov. You will need your employer’s ABN, the periods concerned, your fund details and your payslips.
- Let the process run. The ATO investigates, contacts the employer, and can raise a superannuation guarantee charge assessment. You do not need a lawyer and it costs you nothing.
- Keep working the timeline. Recovery can take months. Follow up rather than assuming silence means resolution.
You can report unpaid super for a former employer as well as a current one, and you can report it after you have left the job.
What the superannuation guarantee charge does
When an employer misses the deadline, they do not simply pay the super late. They become liable for the superannuation guarantee charge, which is deliberately more expensive than paying on time. It includes the shortfall itself, an interest component, and an administrative component, and the charge is not tax deductible to the employer.
Further penalties apply where the charge itself goes unpaid, and in serious cases company directors can be made personally liable through a director penalty notice. The ATO has a range of recovery powers beyond that.
The practical point for an employee is that the system is designed so that paying you correctly is always cheaper than not doing so. That is worth knowing when you raise it, because in most cases the employer’s own accountant will tell them to fix it quickly.
The Fair Work route
Superannuation is not only a tax matter. Superannuation contributions now form part of the National Employment Standards, which means an underpayment can also be a breach of the Fair Work Act, and late or unpaid super may breach an applicable award or enterprise agreement.
In practice that gives you a second avenue. The ATO remains the primary enforcement agency for the superannuation guarantee, and for most people it is the right first step because it is free and requires no legal action. But where super forms part of a broader underpayment claim, or where you are in a unionised workplace, the Fair Work path may be pursued alongside it.
If you are dealing with underpayment of wages as well as super, raise both together rather than separately.
If the business has collapsed
This is where people are hurt most, and there is an important gap worth knowing about.
The Fair Entitlements Guarantee, the government scheme that can cover unpaid wages, annual leave and redundancy pay when an employer becomes insolvent, does not cover superannuation. Unpaid super in an insolvency is pursued through the liquidation process and through the ATO’s recovery powers, including director penalty notices, which can make directors personally liable.
The consequence is straightforward. Do not wait to report unpaid super in the hope that a struggling business will catch up. Reporting early, while the business is still trading and while directors are still contactable, materially improves the chance of recovery.
Why it matters more than the amount suggests
Unpaid super rarely looks dramatic on a single payslip. A few hundred dollars a quarter feels like an irritation rather than a loss.
The problem is the time horizon. $3,000 of unpaid super at age 25, if it had been invested and earned 7 per cent a year, would be around $44,900 by age 65. The figure is illustrative and returns vary, but the shape of it is the point: money missing from super in your twenties is not a small amount, it is a large amount arriving in a form you cannot see yet. Our guide on the power of compounding explains the mechanism.
There is a second consequence people miss entirely. An account that receives no contributions for 16 months is treated as inactive, and the insurance attached to it is cancelled. Someone whose employer stops paying super can therefore lose their life, TPD and income protection cover without ever being told why, as our guide on insurance cancelled on inactive super accounts explains. If you have found a gap, check your insurance at the same time.
Situations worth checking carefully
- You invoice with an ABN. Being called a contractor does not settle it. If the contract is mainly for your labour, super may be payable.
- You have multiple jobs. Each employer has its own obligation, and gaps are easier to miss across several accounts.
- You changed funds. Contributions may have continued to the old account. Check every account you have held, and consider whether consolidating makes sense, though our guide on consolidating super funds explains why you should check the insurance before you do.
- You are on a salary sacrifice arrangement. Sacrificed amounts must not be used to reduce your employer’s own obligation.
- You work overtime. Overtime is generally excluded from the earnings base, so lower super on an overtime-heavy pay is not necessarily an error.
- You are in your first job with a new employer. The first contribution has a longer 20 business day window.
Where Professional Advice Adds Value
To be direct about it, if the only issue is unpaid super, you do not need to pay anyone. Reporting it to the ATO through myGov is free, it does not require representation, and it is the correct first step. Anyone offering to recover unpaid super for a percentage is offering you something you can do yourself at no cost.
Where advice does help is on the other side of the problem. A period of unpaid super leaves a gap in a retirement plan, and that gap needs to be quantified and closed rather than simply recovered. That means working out what the shortfall means for your position at retirement, whether catch-up contributions are worth making, and whether insurance was lost along the way and needs replacing.
It also helps for people who discover they were never being paid super at all, most commonly long-term contractors who assumed they were excluded. Our guides on how much super you should have at your age and closing a superannuation gap are the right starting points for that conversation.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check if my employer is paying my super?
Log in to myGov, link the ATO, and look at the contributions reported for each of your super accounts by financial year. Cross-check that against your fund’s own statement and your payslips, which should show the super accruing for each pay period. Also confirm the money has not gone to an older fund of yours.
How quickly does super have to be paid now?
Since 1 July 2026, contributions must be received by your fund within 7 business days of payday, rather than quarterly. There is a limited exception allowing 20 business days for the first contribution for a new employee. The June 2026 quarter was the last paid under the old quarterly rules.
What do I do if my employer is not paying my super?
Raise it with your employer in writing first, since most gaps are administrative. If it is not resolved, lodge an unpaid super enquiry with the ATO through myGov. You will need your employer’s ABN, the periods concerned, your fund details and your payslips. It is free and you do not need a lawyer.
Can I claim unpaid super from a former employer?
Yes. You can report unpaid super for a former employer and after you have left the job. Report it as early as you can, because recovery is considerably harder once a business has stopped trading.
What happens to my unpaid super if my employer goes broke?
The Fair Entitlements Guarantee covers some unpaid entitlements but does not cover superannuation. Unpaid super is pursued through the liquidation and through the ATO’s recovery powers, including director penalty notices that can make directors personally liable. This is why reporting early, while the business is still trading, matters.
Do contractors get super?
Sometimes. If you are paid mainly for your own labour under a contract, you may be entitled to super even though you invoice and hold an ABN. Being described as a contractor in an agreement does not settle the question, and many people in this position have never been paid super they were owed.
Is there a time limit on claiming unpaid super?
There is no simple cut-off, but practical limits apply, since records become harder to obtain, businesses close and directors become uncontactable. Report as soon as you identify a gap rather than waiting, and keep your payslips, which are your primary evidence.
Taking the next step
Take ten minutes, log in to myGov, and compare what your fund has received against what your payslips say you earned. Most people have never done this, and the ones who find something usually find it going back years.
If there is a gap, report it. It is free, it does not require a lawyer, and the system is now designed to detect and penalise exactly this.
General advice warning: This article contains general information only. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs, and it is not legal or tax advice. Superannuation guarantee obligations, the payday super rules that commenced on 1 July 2026 and the associated penalties are administered by the ATO, and employment entitlements may also arise under the Fair Work Act, an award or an enterprise agreement. Whether an individual is entitled to super, and in what amount, depends on their specific working arrangement. Confirm your position with the ATO, the Fair Work Ombudsman or a workplace relations professional, and seek personal advice from a licensed financial adviser before making decisions about your superannuation.
