Under Australia’s super system, employers must comply with the super guarantee by contributing at least 10.5 per cent of their employee’s earnings to their super fund. Contributions must be made at least on a quarterly basis, although employers can – and many do – choose to make contributions on behalf of their employees more frequently.

Over the last 30 years, Australia has built a super system that now holds around $3.4 trillion in assets. However, the success of our system and its capacity to promote financial security and wellbeing for workers in retirement depends on employers doing the right thing: paying super contributions for each employee in full and on time. Unfortunately, this does not always occur.

Unpaid super affects one in five women, costing each affected worker an average of $1,300 in super contributions each year. In 2019-20, women missed out on a total of $1.3 billion in super guarantee contributions. Over the last seven years, this figure amounts to $10.8 billion.

The key policy reforms discussed in that report include:

• Mandating payment of super with wages
• Enforcing penalties for employers who do not pay super
• Extending the Fair Entitlements Guarantee to cover super guarantee contributions