Australians Unions welcome today’s release of exposure draft legislation by the Albanese Government requiring super to be paid at the same time as wages.
Payday super will directly improve the retirement outcomes of workers by making it harder for employers to get away with super theft.
Unpaid super costs 2.8 million Australians – or one in four workers – a total of $5.1 billion a year, particularly impacting younger workers, those in insecure work, women, and migrant workers.
The average affected worker has $1,800 in super stolen per year or $30,000 by retirement, according to the Super Members Council.
Payday super will also give Australians greater oversight over their retirement savings and enable all workers to reap the benefits of compound interest.
Quotes attributable to ACTU Assistant Secretary, Joseph Mitchell:
“Payday super is critical to improving workers’ retirement outcomes and stopping super theft. By making super paid at the same time as wages, workers will retire with thousands of dollars more in their superannuation accounts.
“2.8 million Australians have $5.1 billion in super stolen from them every single year. It’s now on Peter Dutton to back in this crucial measure – something the Coalition neglected to do in their decade in power.
“Superannuation is workers’ retirement savings, not the cash of employers. When workers earn superannuation, they should be paid at the same time as their payday.
“Payday super will put more into super, more regularly, into more workers’ accounts and directly improve the retirement outcomes of all Australians.
“All Australians deserve to retire in dignity and the Government’s payday super legislation will make a significant contribution to realising this.”
