Most Australian employers are required by Government legislation to make superannuation contributions for their employees – called Superannuation Guarantee (SG) contributions. From 1 July 2024, SG contributions are 11.5% of an eligible employee’s Ordinary Time Earnings (subject to a maximum dollar limit). Ordinary time earnings are generally what you earn for ordinary hours of work, including over-award payments, commissions, allowances, bonuses and paid leave. The SG contribution rate is legislated to gradually increase to 12% over time.
To be an eligible employee, you must be aged 18 or more, and can be:

Full-time, part-time or casual;

– A temporary resident, such as a backpacker or working holiday maker;

– A company director;

– A family member working in your business; and/or

– Receiving a super pension or annuity while working.

Special eligibility rules exist for:

– Employees aged under 18 – must work for their employer more than 30 hours per week;

– Domestic or private workers (i.e., nanny, housekeeper, carer) engaged personally and not as part of a business – must be engaged for more than 30 hours per week;

– Contractors – must be paid mainly for their labour.

Some awards, enterprise agreements and other registered employment agreements have extra terms about superannuation. These terms apply on top of the superannuation guarantee.

SG contributions are currently required to be paid by an employer to an eligible employee’s superannuation fund at least quarterly, however this may change in the future. These payments will typically be shown on your payslip.

It is possible to have multiple super fund accounts, so it is important to tell your employer about your Verve Super account if you want that employer’s contributions to be paid into your Verve account.

You can find out more information about eligibility for super here.