Super guarantee eligibility
If you’re eligible for super guarantee contributions, your employer must pay the minimum super guarantee contribution based on the current super guarantee percentage of your qualifying earnings (up to the maximum contributions base). If your employer doesn't pay the contributions, they are liable to a tax called the super guarantee charge.
Generally, all employees are eligible for super guarantee. It doesn't matter if you're:
- full time, part time or casual – except if you're
- under 18 years old, you're only eligible for super guarantee if you work more than 30 hours in a week
- paid to do work of a private or domestic nature, you're only eligible for super guarantee if you work more than 30 hours in a week
- receiving a super pension or annuity while working (including employees on transition to retirement income streams)
- a temporary resident, such as a backpacker – with some exceptions
- a company director
- a family member working in the employer's business.
You're eligible for super guarantee regardless of how much you earn. Once your qualifying earnings reach the maximum contribution base for a financial year, your employer can stop making super guarantee contributions for you.
Most employees can choose the super fund their super guarantee contributions are paid into.
Complete a Super Health Check regularly to keep track of your super.
Find out about Unpaid super from your employer.
New from 1 July 2026
From 1 July 2026 under the new Payday Super legislation, your employer pays your super guarantee contributions for each payday, instead of for each quarter.
Your super fund must receive the contribution (with all the necessary information to allocate the contribution to your member account) within 7 business days after payday to be considered on-time. Before 1 July 2026, your employer only needed to pay your super within 28 days of the end of each quarter.
Amounts of salary sacrifice that would have otherwise been qualifying earnings had they not been sacrificed to super:
- are counted in the qualifying earnings that your employer is required to calculate your super entitlement on
- do not count towards the amount of super guarantee contributions that your employer is required to make in order for them to avoid the super guarantee charge.
Amounts of salary sacrifice that have been reversed and subsequently paid to you are not qualifying earnings.
Payments used to calculate super guarantee
Qualifying earnings are the earnings paid to you that are used to calculate the amount of your super guarantee. These include:
- ordinary time earnings, i.e. what you earn for ordinary hours of work, including certain over-award payments, allowances, bonuses, paid leave
- all commissions
- salary sacrifice amounts that would count as qualifying earnings if they had not been sacrificed to super
- earnings paid to workers who fall under the expanded definition of employee, such as an independent contractor paid mainly for their labour.
Qualifying earnings don't include overtime.
The concessional contributions cap
Super guarantee payments are classified as employer contributions and count towards your concessional (before tax) contributions cap.
Independent contractors
If you’re an independent contractor paid wholly or principally for your labour, you’re considered an employee for super purposes and entitled to super guarantee contributions under the same rules as employees.
A contract may be considered ‘wholly or principally for labour’ if:
- you’re paid wholly or principally for your personal labour and skills
- you perform the contract work personally
- you’re paid for hours worked, rather than to achieve a result.
For super to apply, the contract must be directly between you and your employer. It can’t be through another person or through a company, trust or partnership.
Super guarantee is payable on the labour component of your invoice.
Working overseas temporarily
If you work overseas for an Australian employer for a temporary period, your employer must continue to pay super contributions for you in Australia.
You or your employer won't have to pay additional super (or its equivalent) in the other country if both of the following apply:
- the country has a bilateral social security agreement with Australia to avoid double superannuation payments
- your employer gets a certificate of coverage from us.
However, your employer is not required to make super contributions if you’re:
- a foreign resident for tax purposes who is paid to do work outside Australia
- an Australian resident for tax purposes who is paid by a non-resident employer for work done outside Australia.
Working in Australia temporarily
Your employer is not required to make super contributions if you’re:
- a senior foreign executive working in Australia on a certain class of visa
- temporarily working in Australia for an overseas employer and are covered by the super provisions of a bilateral social security agreement.
With multiple employers you may be able to partially opt out of super guarantee
If you have more than one employer and expect their super contributions will exceed your concessional contributions cap, you can apply to opt out of receiving super guarantee from some of your employers.