Watch out for the SG rip-off

Workers are missing out on billions of dollars of employer contributions, but there's a simple way to ensure they get their entitlements

- VITA PALESTRANT

Unpaid super has been a long-running issue. The system allows employers to make quarterly super contributions and, with exemptions, even less frequently. Employees are left guessing when it will be paid. Consumers and super funds want the law to be changed.

Compulsory super contributions, also called the super guarantee (SG), come out of wages. When an employer fails to pay them, the employee’s retirement nest egg not only misses out on the SG but also on its earnings, leaving them with smaller balances at retirement.

The impact doesn’t end there. If your super account has been inactive for more than 16 months, or its balance falls too low, your life and disability insurance cover will be cancelled.

“Some employers are not across what their responsibilities are and are not paying on time,” says Xavier O’Halloran, director of Super Consumers Australia. “But there are also some bad actors out there, looking to avoid their responsibilities to their employees. Essentially, they are engaged in wage theft and it needs to stop.

“Currently, it can be three months between getting the SG, and even longer in some cases, because employers can get an exemption, so it can drag on for months and months before someone gets what they are legally entitled to under the current system. Waiting three to four months to get paid the super you’ve earned is way too long.”

O’Halloran says quarterly payments are a hangover from the pre-digital age and there is no longer an excuse to drag things out. “Employers should be required to pay super alongside wages.”

In a pre-budget submission to the federal government, the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) has called for employers to pay the SG at the same time as wages from July 1 this year.