This might get long. Ok so I’m going to give a brief overview of Australia’s payroll system as I know there are lots of people from different countries here.

When an employee is paid they are entitled to the following for example (per week):-

Gross wage $900

PAYG (W). -$148 - tax paid to tax office by employer

Net wage. $752 - paid to employee

Super. $85.50 - 9.5% of gross wage

Super is paid to an employees super fund by the employer weekly, monthly or quarterly, up to employer really, so long as it is definitely done quarterly.

Super is for retirement only and generally unless under very special circumstance cannot be accessed until you retire, about 65 at the moment. The rules are strict.

Australia recently introduced Single Touch Payroll (STP) for ALL employers. This means every time a pay event happens (weekly, fortnightly, monthly, etc) the ‘year to date’ totals of Gross, PAYG (W) and Super is sent electronically to the tax office. Every business no matter how many employees must do this. This helps to pre-fill tax returns at the end of a financial year since the tax office already has the employees wage info. And crack down on employers not paying tax or super on their wages.

Superfunds are now “talking” to the tax office letting them know if super is being paid by the employer and are now capable of data matching thanks to STP.

There has been lots of complaining about STP as employers don’t like being forced to use & in some instances pay for payroll software. Arguments against are computer illiterate employers ( older generation), only have seasonal workers, no stable internet access.

There are a lot of employers that either fall behind or don’t pay super to their employees and the employee could be none the wiser even though that is part of their wage technically. This is a legal obligation, employers don’t get a choice. If they don’t pay super on time then admin fees and interest can be charged on top of the super amounts.

Some people are now calling the government to pass legislation to make super payable on pay day, the same time the employee gets paid instead of quarterly.

Now people are saying the government is overstepping and not everyone can afford to pay super every time an employee is paid. There are a lot of comments on articles saying this is becoming communistic and ridiculous.

Others say if you can’t pay your obligations maybe you shouldn’t be in business and not paying super is essentially wage theft.

So my question is are we becoming a communist nation by introducing STP and super being paid at the same time as normal pay. Is our government overstepping and getting too involved with how employers are running their businesses? Is it too much oversight?

I think it is a good thing that all these institutions are talking to each other at the end of the day it is protecting the every day workers rights.

If you made it this far thanks for reading.

I hope I’ve made this easy to follow I’ll answer any questions since it can be confusing.