Are your super obligations actually being met?
A quick assessment of your super guarantee position across the rate you pay, what you pay it on, and when — the four places most Australian employers quietly fall short.
~2 minutes · 5 questions · No login to start
SG rate
12% from 1 Jul 2025
OTE coverage
Overtime, bonuses, allowances
Parental leave
Super on PPL
Payment timing
Payday super — 7 business days
About this tool
Superannuation Compliance Checker
Superannuation is one of the easiest obligations for an Australian employer to get quietly wrong. It isn't a single number you set once — it's a moving set of rules covering the rate you pay, what earnings you pay it on, and how promptly the money reaches each employee's fund. Rates step up on legislated dates, the definition of ordinary time earnings catches things owners often miss (like most overtime, bonuses and allowances), and the shift to payday super changes when contributions are due. When any of these slips, the shortfall compounds silently pay run after pay run — and the penalty for getting it wrong, the Super Guarantee Charge, is deliberately more expensive than simply paying on time. The Superannuation Compliance Checker gives owners a fast, plain-English read on where they actually stand.
How it works
The tool asks five short questions about how you currently run super: your headcount (and whether any staff are under 18), the SG rate you're paying, which earnings types you pay super on (overtime, bonuses, allowances, parental leave), and how often you remit contributions. It then scores your position against the current super guarantee rules and flags gaps in four areas — an SG rate below the legal minimum for the current period, incomplete OTE coverage, a payment frequency that no longer meets payday super timing requirements, and whether super applies to any parental leave you offer. Each flagged gap comes with a plain description and an indicative, clearly-qualitative sense of the exposure that you're prompted to sanity-check against your own payroll figures. Rather than baking in dollar amounts, it points you to the current ATO rate and OTE guidance and explains how the redesigned Super Guarantee Charge is calculated, so the output stays accurate as thresholds and dates change.
Who it’s for
Australian small-business owners, founders and office managers who run payroll and want a quick sense-check that their super obligations are being met before a gap turns into an SG Charge.
- Super compliance has four common failure points — the rate paid, the earnings super is paid on (OTE), the timing of payments under payday super, and how parental leave is treated — and gaps in any of them compound quietly across pay runs.
- Most overtime, bonuses and allowances count as ordinary time earnings for super purposes, so employers who don't pay super on variable pay can accrue a shortfall without realising it.
- The Super Guarantee Charge is designed to cost more than paying on time — it captures the shortfall plus notional earnings and an administrative component, and unlike ordinary contributions it isn't tax-deductible, which is why staying current matters.
Frequently asked questions
Do I really have to pay super on overtime, bonuses and allowances?
Often, yes. The super guarantee is calculated on ordinary time earnings (OTE), and the ATO treats most bonuses and many allowances as OTE — and some overtime as well, depending on how it's structured. Whether a specific payment counts turns on its nature, not its label, so the safest approach is to map each earnings type in your payroll against the ATO's current OTE guidance. The checker flags which categories you may be missing so you know where to look; it doesn't replace confirming the specifics with your accountant.
What is payday super and does it change when I have to pay?
Payday super is a reform that ties super contributions to your pay cycle rather than to the old quarterly cycle, requiring super to reach the employee's fund within a set number of business days of each payday. In practice that means a quarterly or annual remittance schedule no longer meets the law. If you use a clearing house, remember the clock is about when the fund receives the money, not when you send it, so you need to allow processing time. The tool checks your stated frequency against these timing rules and flags it if you're at risk.
What actually happens if I underpay super?
If super isn't paid in full and on time, the ATO applies the Super Guarantee Charge. It's built to be more expensive than compliance: it captures the outstanding shortfall, notional earnings to compensate the employee, and an administrative component, with further consequences for employers who don't promptly put things right — and the charge isn't tax-deductible the way ordinary contributions are. Because the exact figures depend on the amount and how long it's been outstanding, the tool explains how the charge is structured and points you to current ATO guidance rather than quoting numbers that change.