When Coco* asked her former boss why she hadn’t been paid her super, she was told “not to worry, it’s paid quarterly”. But as time went by, and with red flags flying ominously, she felt helpless.
Despite months of enquiries and reassurances that payment would come, her worst fears were realised when her employer went into liquidation. This left her and colleagues without thousands of dollars in super payments they had earned and were legally owed.
Almost every week we hear similar stories to Coco’s. Many follow a similar pattern, where a lack of awareness and assumed trust, combined with an out-of-date obligation on employers to only pay super every three months, allows unpaid super to flourish.
Australia’s unpaid super problem has cost workers like Coco $24.4 billion in lost retirement savings over just five years our new analysis shows.
These aren’t abstract figures — they’re real people missing out, especially women, younger workers and those on lower incomes who can least afford it.
The individual cost of unpaid super compounds over a working life. A worker missing just $1,730 in super in a single year could end up more than $30,000 worse off in retirement.
We know why it happens. When super is paid quarterly, it’s too easy for underpayments to go unnoticed and for workers’ super to be seen less as an entitlement and more as a way to manage cashfow.
That’s exactly why payday super matters.
From 1 July 2026, super will be paid alongside wages, bringing a decades-old system into line with how modern payroll works. It’s a simple fix with a powerful effect: make missing payments visible sooner, fix them faster, and stop them happening in the first place.
Yet despite the scale of the problem, some business stakeholders are calling for the reforms to be delayed — arguing small businesses are under pressure, unprepared, and worried about cashflow impacts.
The concerns of small businesses deserve to be heard. But delaying payday super is the wrong answer.
The reality is tens of thousands of businesses are already paying super on payday. Digital payroll systems are widespread, and more than half of small and medium businesses already pay super more frequently than quarterly. This reform levels the playing field for those doing the right thing, not penalises them.
We now have a clear, practical solution — one that strengthens the system, protects workers, and ensures people are paid what they’re owed, when they’re owed it.
Let’s get on with it, so millions of Australians don’t live a story like Coco’s.
*Real name protected
