WA employees missing millions in unpaid super

Workers in Western Australia are missing out on $568 million in superannuation payments each year as a result of rule allowing employers to pay quarterly rather than with wages.

Analysis of Australian Taxation Office (ATO) data by Industry Super Australia (ISA) found 300,000 Western Australians were short-changed in 2018/19 by an average of $1,810 each.

Younger workers in blue-collar jobs, hospitality and retail were most likely to be affected.

Looking by suburb, the worst-affected was the suburb of Pearce where 29% of the electorate had been underpaid by an average of $1,932.

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The reason for this was some employers were using a rule that allowed them to pay super quarterly rather than with wages.

The report said: “Without alignment of super and wages, workers lose track of payments and only discover they’ve been underpaid when it is too late. Because super can be paid quarterly some small business owners succumb to the temptation of using their employees’ super contributions for cashflow, which also leads to underpayments.

“Paying super with wages would level the playing field for all employers, stopping the unfair commercial advantage exploitative bosses get by not paying their workers’ full entitlements.”

It also called for super to be added to the Fair Entitlements Guarantee which would help in cases of businesses going bust when they owe unpaid super and wages to their staff.

Bernie Dean, ISA chief executive, said: “By not mandating employers pay super with wages, politicians are effectively standing in the way of millions of workers getting money they’ve earned and undermining their future economic security”.