Most of you will probably already know that compulsory employer super contributions are increasing by .5% from 1/7/22 to 10.5%.

Some people’s salaries are expressed as a salary “inclusive of super”. Unfortunately, in my view, this means that employers will simply deduct more money from your take-home pay and send it off to the super fund you’ve chosen. You will end up with less pay in your hand as a result!

I strongly urge people when they start a new job to ensure that their package is expressed as a base salary plus superannuation. Eg $75,000 base plus 10.5% super making the salary package $75,000 plus $7,875=$82,875. That way, from 1/7 every year up until 1/7/25 (from this date super will have increased to 12%), you will receive more super from your employer without it affecting your base salary.

Casual threshold

The previous threshold requiring casuals to earn a minimum of $450 per month before being paid super has disappeared. This means that you will need to pay super for all your casual employees, regardless of how much they earn. There are 2 exceptions to this:

  1. If a casual employee is under 18 years of age they must work at least 30 hours per week before being eligible for super
  2. An enterprise agreement (EA) may override these new provisions so check the wording carefully if your workers are covered by an EA.

For some of you, this may mean paying superannuation to some employees for the first time.  You will need to provide these employees with a superannuation standard choice form.   If an employee does not tell you their choice of superannuation fund you will need to follow the superannuation stapling provisions.  A stapled superannuation fund is an existing superannuation account linked to an individual employee that they have used in previous jobs.

Please call me on 0407 451 382 or email:

david@wurthhr.com.au

if you have any questions about these changes. I’ll be emailing another document outlining all the other changes to salary thresholds and national wage case increases coming into effect from 1/7/22. Watch this space!

David Wurth

Wurth HR.