Highlights

  • Under Payday Super, which is now law, employers must pay super guarantee at the same time as wages, rather than quarterly.
  • Business days exclude weekends and public holidays that apply across a whole state or territory.
  • The test is when the money and allocation details arrive at the fund, not when they leave the employer's bank account.
  • Bonuses rarely line up neatly with the regular pay cycle.

Christmas bonuses now bring a second deadline into focus: the date superannuation must arrive at an employee’s fund.

The standard 7-business-day rule

Under Payday Super, which is now law, employers must pay super guarantee at the same time as wages, rather than quarterly. The super guarantee rate is 12%. the standard deadline is met when the employee's super fund receives the contribution, together with the information needed to allocate it, within 7 business days after the qualifying earnings day, usually the payday. Business days exclude weekends and public holidays that apply across a whole state or territory. A holiday that covers only part of a state, such as Royal Hobart Show Day, still counts as a business day. The test is when the money and allocation details arrive at the fund, not when they leave the employer's bank account. That distinction matters when processing times stretch over holiday periods.

How the out-of-cycle rule works for bonuses

Bonuses rarely line up neatly with the regular pay cycle. The ATO treats bonuses, commissions, allowances, back pay and advances paid outside the normal cycle as out-of-cycle payments. For these, super is due within 7 business days after the next regular payday, not 7 business days after the bonus itself. More detail is set out in the ATO's legislative instrument LI 2026/20. In practice, this means the super on a bonus can usually be sent with the next regular contribution, rather than as a separate payment. The rule does not apply to everyone. workers who are paid on invoice, or who have irregular paydays, are not treated as receiving out-of-cycle payments.

The ATO's December example

The ATO's own guidance uses a Christmas-period scenario. A bonus is paid on Monday 7 December 2026, and the employee's next regular payday is Thursday 10 December 2026. The super on the bonus is due on Monday 21 December 2026, which is the same deadline as the contribution for the 10 December regular pay. Hypothetical example: assume an employee receives a $5,000 bonus on 7 December 2026 that counts as ordinary time earnings. At the 12% super guarantee rate, the super on the bonus is $5,000 × 12% = $600. Using the ATO's dates, that $600 would need to reach the fund by 21 December 2026, alongside the super on the 10 December pay. The example assumes no other factors, such as the maximum contribution base, affect the amount. The ATO gives a similar example for back pay. Back pay made on 29 August 2026, with the next fortnightly payday on 3 September 2026, had super due by 14 September 2026.

Not every bonus attracts super

Whether super guarantee is payable on a bonus depends on whether the bonus counts as ordinary time earnings. Broadly, that turns on whether it relates to ordinary hours of work. Some bonuses will meet that test and some will not, so employers may need to check how each payment is characterised before applying the 12% rate. There is also a ceiling. For 2026–27 the maximum contribution base is $270,830, now set as an annual figure. Once an employee's qualifying earnings for the year reach that amount, an employer does not need to pay super guarantee on further qualifying earnings that year. The ATO's worked example involves an employee earning $18,750 a month. Eleven pays from July to May total $206,250.