Payday Super – what automotive employers should do now

By Ben Swan, MTAQ Director of Workplace Relations

If you run a workshop, payroll already feels like a weekly (or fortnightly) pit stop, pay wages, lodge Single Touch Payroll (STP), keep jobs moving and try not to let administration work eat the day. From 1 July 2026, one big part of that routine changes again and superannuation becomes a pay-day job, not a quarterly job.

What’s changing?

Under Payday Super, you’ll need to pay your employees’ superannuation guarantee (SG) each time you pay wages and the money must generally reach the employee’s nominated super fund within 7 business days. This is a much tighter turnaround than the current quarterly due dates.

Just as importantly, SG will be calculated as 12 per cent of “qualifying earnings” (QE). QE is a new term that pulls together ordinary time earnings and other amounts that are currently included in salary or wages for SG purposes (including salary sacrifice amounts for super). From 1 July 2026, employers will also be reporting both QE and SG liability through STP.

Why automotive businesses should pay attention

In the automotive sector, cashflow timing matters. Many businesses are balancing weekly wages against insurer payments, fleet accounts, parts invoices and unpredictable workflow. Moving super from “four big payments a year” to “every pay run” can feel like one more squeeze and even though the annual amount doesn’t change, the timing does. Payroll processes also need to be reliable enough that super does not bounce back because a fund detail is wrong or a payment is delayed.

There is also an administration reality, when the deadline is measured in days, mistakes become urgent. The ATO has made it clear that late or missed payments can trigger the Super Guarantee Charge (SGC) and penalties, so this is one change you do not want to discover at the end of the quarter.

The Small Business Clearing House will close

If you are still using the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH), you will need a transition plan. The ATO says the SBSCH is already closed to new users, existing users can access it until 30 June 2026 and it will not be available after that. Waiting until June is a recipe for last-minute stress.

A practical checklist

Here are five sensible steps most automotive SMEs can take well before 1 July 2026:

1. Talk to your payroll provider (or bookkeeper) about Payday Super readiness, including QE calculations and STP reporting changes.
2. Audit employee fund details (member numbers, TFNs where relevant, fund names) to reduce failed payments and rework.
3. Run a cashflow “stress test”: what does super every pay cycle do to your weekly/fortnightly cash position?
4. Update onboarding so new starters provide choice-of-fund details early. There can be an extended timeframe (commonly 20 business days) for first payments in some new employee or fund-change situations, but you should still aim to process promptly.
5. Assign ownership: make sure whoever runs payroll understands the new “7 business day” rule and what to do if a payment is rejected.

Final word

Payday Super does not need to be painful, but it does require planning. The businesses that will feel most comfortable in July 2026 are the ones that treat this as a systems upgrade now. So tidy up your data, confirm software capability and get ahead of cashflow timing. That way, payday stays payday, not panic day.

The information in this article is general and does not constitute legal advice. For more information or any other workplace relations assistance, contact MTAQ on 07 3237 8777.