Your employer must pay 12% of your ordinary time earnings into your super fund in 2026-27. That’s the superannuation guarantee (SG) rate — and it’s the final rate in a timetable that ran for over a decade, so it’s not moving again unless Parliament changes the law.
But the rate is the boring part. What actually changed for 2026-27 is when your employer has to pay it, how much of your salary it applies to, and how the late-payment penalties now work. Under Payday Super, which started 1 July 2026, your super must reach your fund within 7 business days of each payday — not at the end of the quarter. Here’s everything that matters, with real numbers.
How the super guarantee works
Super guarantee is compulsory employer superannuation. Your employer pays a percentage of your ordinary time earnings (OTE) into your nominated super fund on top of your wages — it isn’t deducted from your pay. Most employment arrangements work this way, but some contracts package salary and super into one total figure (“inclusive of super”), which is why checking your contract matters.
Who’s eligible: every employee aged 18 and over, no matter how few hours they work or how little they earn. The old $450-a-month earnings threshold was abolished on 1 July 2022. If you’re under 18, your employer only has to pay SG if you work more than 30 hours a week.
What’s counted as ordinary time earnings: your ordinary-hours pay — base salary or wages, casual loading, shift loadings for ordinary shifts, commissions, and allowances tied to ordinary hours. Overtime is excluded — the single most common source of SG calculation errors. Unused leave paid out when you leave a job and expense reimbursements are excluded too.
Super guarantee rates: the full timetable
| Financial year | SG rate |
|---|---|
| 2022-23 | 10.5% |
| 2023-24 | 11% |
| 2024-25 | 11.5% |
| 2025-26 | 12% |
| 2026-27 | 12% (unchanged) |
The 12% rate took effect on 1 July 2025 and stays in place. There is no scheduled move to 12.5% or 15% — talk of higher rates is speculation, not legislation.
The 2026-27 numbers that matter
| Measure | 2026-27 figure |
|---|---|
| SG rate | 12% of OTE |
| Payment timing | Received by fund within 7 business days of payday |
| Maximum contribution base (annual) | $270,830 |
| Concessional contributions cap | $32,500 |
| Division 293 threshold | $250,000 (unchanged, not indexed) |
Two of those figures deserve a closer look, because both changed on 1 July 2026 and almost nobody has written them up properly.
Payday Super: what changed on 1 July 2026
Before 1 July 2026, employers could pay super quarterly — contributions just had to reach your fund within 28 days of the end of each quarter (28 October, 28 January, 28 April, 28 July). In practice, someone hired in early July might not see their first contribution land until late October, and that was completely legal.
Now the countdown starts on QE day — the day your employer pays your wages. The contribution must be received by your super fund, with the data the fund needs to allocate it to your account, within 7 business days. The fund then has 3 business days to allocate it to your member account.
Practically, this means:
- Your payslip and your fund balance now move together. If your payslip says $460 of super was paid but nothing appears in your fund or MyGov within a couple of weeks, something is wrong — and the ATO can see it too, via Single Touch Payroll and fund reporting.
- The ATO’s small business clearing house is gone. It closed on 30 June 2026, so employers using it had to move to a commercial clearing house or payroll software.
- Late payment got a new penalty structure. The super guarantee charge is now the unpaid contributions plus a “notional earnings” component (interest on the late amounts) plus an administrative uplift of 60% of the shortfall. Once the ATO issues an assessment, the employer has 28 days to pay before a 25% penalty applies — 50% if they’ve been penalised in the previous 24 months, with no discretion to remit. One twist: unlike the old rules, both late contributions and SG charge amounts are now tax-deductible.
- First-year leniency is real but limited. Under Practical Compliance Guideline PCG 2026/1, the ATO says it won’t focus in year one on employers who genuinely try to pay on each payday and fix errors quickly. Employers who still have super unpaid 28 days after the end of a quarter are the compliance priority.
The $270,830 annual cap almost nobody explains
There’s a ceiling on SG: the maximum contribution base. Once your employer’s payments of your qualifying earnings reach it in a financial year, they can stop paying SG on anything above it. For 2026-27 it’s $270,830 for the whole year — and under Payday Super it’s now an annual figure, not the quarterly one employers used to work with.
Here’s the neat part the payroll guides never point out: maximum SG almost exactly equals the concessional contributions cap. 12% of $270,830 is $32,499.60 — one dollar shy of the $32,500 concessional cap. That’s not a coincidence: the maximum base is derived from the concessional cap ($32,500 × 100 ÷ 12, rounded down to the nearest $10).
So if you earn above roughly $271,000, your employer’s compulsory SG tops out at about $32,500 a year — and you’re simultaneously brushing against your concessional cap. If you were planning salary sacrifice on top, that cap room matters a lot.
Worked examples
1. The standard case: $75,000 salary
On $75,000 of ordinary time earnings, your employer owes 12% = $9,000 a year in super. That’s $750 a month on a monthly pay cycle, or about $346 a fortnight. When the rate was 11.5% last year, the same salary attracted $8,625 — so the final step of the timetable was worth an extra $375 a year to this worker.
2. Did your employer absorb the rise or pass it on?
This is the question employees rarely think to ask. If your package is “$85,000 plus super”, your salary stayed $85,000 and your super went from $9,775 (11.5%) to $10,200 — a genuine $425 raise to your total package.
But if your package is “$85,000 inclusive of super”, the maths runs backwards. At 11.5%, your base salary was $85,000 ÷ 1.115 = $76,233. At 12%, it’s $85,000 ÷ 1.12 = $75,893. Your take-home base quietly fell $340 a year while your super rose — check which structure your contract uses.
3. The high earner: $300,000 salary
Twelve percent of $300,000 is $36,000 — but your employer doesn’t owe that. SG only applies up to the $270,830 maximum base, so the compulsory contribution is 12% × $270,830 = $32,499.60. The remaining $29,170 of salary attracts no SG. And note: that $32,500 of SG nearly fills your entire $32,500 concessional cap, leaving essentially no room for salary sacrifice without breaching the cap.
4. Salary sacrifice: $110,000 salary, $10,000 sacrificed
Your employer cannot count your salary sacrifice as part of their SG obligation, and SG is calculated on your pre-sacrifice OTE. So SG = 12% × $110,000 = $13,200, paid on top. Your total concessional contributions are $13,200 + $10,000 = $23,200, leaving $9,300 of headroom under the $32,500 cap. An employer who tried to calculate 12% on the reduced $100,000 ($12,000) would be underpaying by $1,200 — reportable.
5. Overtime excluded: $70,000 base + $8,000 overtime
SG applies to the $70,000 of ordinary time earnings only: 12% × $70,000 = $8,400. The $8,000 of overtime attracts no SG, even though it shows up in your gross pay and gets taxed. If your employer’s payroll applies 12% to your total $78,000 gross, they’re overpaying — which is their problem, not yours, but it also reveals the payroll doesn’t understand OTE.
6. The under-18 rule: 17 years old, 25 hours a week
No SG is owed. The under-18 exemption lifts only above 30 hours a week. The same 17-year-old working 32 hours a week is entitled to SG on all their OTE. Hours are the entire test — pay rate is irrelevant.
Common mistakes
- Assuming the payslip means it’s paid. A payslip shows what your employer recorded, not what reached your fund. Under Payday Super the two should line up within days, but always confirm in your fund’s app or ATO Online Services via MyGov. Unpaid super is still a massive problem — in 2024-25 the ATO raised $1.73 billion in super guarantee charge liabilities covering about 855,000 employees.
- Contractors assuming they’re exempt. Some contractors are entitled to SG — generally, if you’re paid wholly or principally for your labour (rather than for a result), the SG law can treat you as an employee for super purposes. The multi-factor test trips up plenty of “sole trader” arrangements.
- Forgetting the concessional cap. SG contributions count toward your $32,500 concessional cap. On a $200,000 salary, SG alone is $24,000 — add a $10,000 salary sacrifice arrangement and you’ve breached the cap, with the excess taxed at your marginal rate plus interest.
- Not updating fund details. Rejected contributions are a top cause of late payments under the tight 7-day window. When you change funds, give your employer the new details immediately — extended timeframes exist for new starters and fund switches, but they’re the exception, not the plan.
- Ignoring stapling. If you don’t choose a fund, your employer must check with the ATO whether you have a “stapled” fund from a previous job and pay into that — one more reason to keep old fund details handy.
Tips: getting the most out of the system
- Audit your own super twice a year. Log in to ATO Online Services and compare the contributions your fund received against 12% of your OTE. Five minutes, twice a year, catches underpayment early — and under Payday Super, early means within weeks, not quarters.
- Use your cap room deliberately. On a $75,000 salary, SG uses $9,000 of your $32,500 concessional cap, leaving $23,500. Salary sacrifice or personal deductible contributions in that room are taxed at 15% in the fund instead of your marginal rate — the core tax play of Australian super.
- Carry-forward can multiply that room. If your total super balance was under $500,000 on 30 June 2026, unused concessional cap amounts from the previous five years can be carried forward — potentially tens of thousands of extra deductible contribution room.
- Report unpaid super early. You can report unpaid or late super to the ATO, which investigates and can recover it. The longer you wait, the harder recovery gets — especially if the business is struggling.
- Watch Division 293. If your income plus concessional contributions exceeds $250,000, an extra 15% tax applies to the concessional contributions (or the excess over $250,000, whichever is less). That threshold is not indexed, so more people drift into it every year.
FAQ
Is super paid on top of my salary or taken out of it?
For most standard arrangements, it’s paid on top as a separate employer contribution. But “inclusive of super” packages exist — especially in senior and contract roles — where the 12% comes out of a fixed total. Read your contract; the two structures produce very different take-home pay.
Do I get super on overtime?
No. Overtime is excluded from ordinary time earnings, so no SG is owed on it. The same applies to unused leave paid out on termination and expense reimbursements.
Does my employer pay super if I salary sacrifice?
Yes — and at the full rate. SG is calculated on your pre-sacrifice ordinary time earnings, and your employer can’t treat your salary-sacrificed amount as part of their SG obligation. If they do, they’re underpaying.
I’m 17 and work part-time. Do I get super?
Only if you work more than 30 hours a week. Below that, your employer has no SG obligation. The rule is purely hours-based.
My payslip shows super but my fund hasn’t received it. What do I do?
Wait a couple of weeks (Payday Super allows 7 business days from payday, plus 3 for the fund to allocate), then ask your employer for the payment reference. If it still hasn’t landed, you can report unpaid super to the ATO, which can investigate and recover it — including the new notional earnings and 60% administrative uplift components.
What happens if my employer pays late under Payday Super?
They become liable for the super guarantee charge: the unpaid amounts, plus notional earnings (interest), plus a 60% administrative uplift on the shortfall. Unlike the old system, these amounts are tax-deductible — but the uplift and penalties make lateness far more expensive than paying on time.
Twelve percent is the end of the road for the SG timetable, and Payday Super has fundamentally changed the plumbing underneath it: faster payments, an annual $270,830 earnings cap, and penalties with real teeth. Check your next payslip against your fund balance — under the new rules, they should finally agree. If you’d like to see how SG interacts with your overall tax position, try the super calculator and the income tax calculator.
Related reading: Super Contribution Caps 2026-27 · Superannuation Tax & Salary Sacrifice · Division 293 Tax Explained · Super Withdrawal Tax · Division 296: the $3M Super Tax
Sources: ATO — Super guarantee rates and thresholds · ATO — Contributions caps · ATO — Payment deadlines for Payday Super
