11 June 2026 · 9 min read
Quick Answer
From 1 July 2026, super must be paid within 7 business days of every payday (not quarterly), the SBSCH closes permanently, some employers shift to monthly PAYG cycles, and the national minimum wage rises 4.75%. You need to update your payroll software, super payment schedule, and wage rates before 30 June 2026 — not after.
On 1 July 2026, four separate payroll compliance changes take effect at the same time. None of them are optional. None of them have a grace period for small businesses. And with less than 30 days left on the clock, the window to get your systems right is closing fast.
The four changes are: Payday Super (super paid per payrun, not quarterly), the permanent closure of the ATO's Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH), potential PAYG withholding cycle reassignments, and a 4.75% increase to the national minimum wage under the Fair Work Commission's 2025–26 Annual Wage Review. Any one of these alone would require a payroll system update. All four arriving together means employers who are still on manual processes or outdated software face compounding risk.
This post breaks down each change in plain English — what it is, what it costs you if you miss it, and the specific action you need to take before 30 June. If you run payroll for even one employee in Australia, read this before the end of June.
This is the biggest structural change to Australian payroll in over a decade. Under the new Payday Super legislation, now passed into law, employers must pay superannuation within 7 business days of each payday — not at the end of each quarter. The old quarterly system (pay super by 28 January, 28 April, 28 July, 28 October) is gone from 1 July 2026.
What this means in practice: if you pay your staff weekly, you now owe super weekly. Fortnightly payroll means fortnightly super contributions. The ATO will apply a Superannuation Guarantee (SG) charge for every missed payrun — not every missed quarter. For a business with 5 employees on a weekly payrun, that's up to 52 individual super obligations per employee per year, each with its own 7-business-day deadline.
The SG charge is not a slap on the wrist. It includes the unpaid super amount, an interest charge of 10% per annum, and an administration fee of $20 per employee per quarter where a shortfall occurred. The charge is also not tax-deductible, unlike regular super contributions. If your payroll software is still calculating super on a quarterly accrual basis and scheduling a lump payment, it is already non-compliant for anything processed after 1 July 2026.
⚠️ 20 days to go: If your payroll software hasn't been updated to support Payday Super, you will be non-compliant from your very first July payrun. Check your software provider's update status today.
Payday Super: what changes from 1 July 2026
The ATO's Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH) is closing permanently on 1 July 2026. The SBSCH has been the free default option for small employers (19 or fewer employees, or annual turnover under $10 million) to make super contributions — one payment to the ATO, which distributed funds to individual employee super funds. That option no longer exists from 1 July.
If you've been using the SBSCH, you need to have an alternative clearing house or super payment method set up and tested before 30 June. The two main alternatives are: using a commercial payroll platform with a built-in clearing house (such as SAB Account AI, which processes super contributions directly per payrun), or signing up with a commercial super clearing house such as SuperChoice, Beam, or a fund-run clearing house. Some industry super funds offer free clearing house access to employers whose staff are members — check with your employees' funds.
The critical detail here is timing. Even if you set up a new clearing house account in late June, you need to test it with a real payment before 1 July. A failed first payment on 2 July means you've already missed the 7-business-day Payday Super window if your payrun was 25 June. Don't leave this until the last week of June.
If you currently log into business.gov.au to make super payments, that portal is closing. You need a replacement before 30 June 2026.
SBSCH closure: your action checklist
The ATO periodically reassigns employers to different PAYG withholding payment cycles based on their annual withholding amounts. From 1 July 2026, some small employers who have grown their payroll may find they've been moved from a quarterly PAYG cycle to a monthly cycle. The ATO sends written notification of cycle changes — but if you haven't updated your contact details with the ATO, or if the letter went to an old address, you may not know you've been reassigned.
The three PAYG withholding cycles are: small withholder (withholds less than $25,000 annually — pays quarterly), medium withholder ($25,000 to $1 million annually — pays monthly), and large withholder (over $1 million — pays within 6–8 days). Moving from quarterly to monthly means your PAYG obligation dates change from 28 October, 28 February, 28 April, and 28 July to the 21st of each month (or the next business day). Missing a monthly deadline triggers a Failure to Withhold Remit penalty.
The action here is simple but often skipped: log into the ATO Business Portal or your myGov business account before 30 June and confirm which PAYG cycle you're on for 2026–27. If you've hired more staff or increased wages since last year, cross-check your total annual withholding against the $25,000 threshold. If you're close to or over it, contact the ATO to confirm your cycle before 1 July.
The ATO mails cycle reassignment notices to your registered address. If you've moved or changed accountants, check the Business Portal directly — don't rely on a letter arriving.
PAYG withholding cycles: know which category you're in
The Fair Work Commission handed down its 2025–26 Annual Wage Review decision, increasing the national minimum wage by 4.75%. From 1 July 2026, the national minimum wage rises to approximately $24.95 per hour (from $23.23), and the national minimum weekly wage rises to approximately $948.10 for a 38-hour week. All modern award minimum rates increase by the same 4.75%.
This affects you if you employ anyone paid at or near a minimum award rate — which includes a large proportion of casual hospitality workers, retail workers, cleaners, and care workers. If your payroll software doesn't automatically update award rates on 1 July, you need to manually update every affected employee's base rate before running your first July payrun. Underpaying by even one week creates a Fair Work Act breach, and the Fair Work Ombudsman actively investigates underpayment complaints.
One detail that catches employers out: the 4.75% increase applies to the base award rate, but penalty rates, overtime, and allowances that are calculated as a percentage of the base rate will also increase automatically. If you've hardcoded any dollar amounts for penalty rates in your payroll system rather than using percentage-based calculations, you need to recalculate and update those figures manually. Check your payroll setup for any flat-dollar entries that should be percentage-based.
Fair Work compliance is not negotiable. Even a one-week underpayment at the old rate can result in a formal underpayment notice and back-pay obligation. Update rates before your first July payrun — not after.
Minimum wage increase: what to update before 1 July
Each of these four changes is manageable on its own. The danger is that they all land on the same date, and they interact with each other in ways that multiply compliance risk for small employers. Consider a typical scenario: you run weekly payroll for 4 employees, you've been using the SBSCH for super, you're paid quarterly for PAYG, and two of your employees are on award wages.
From 1 July 2026, your first weekly payrun triggers a Payday Super obligation due within 7 business days — but you haven't set up a new clearing house yet because the SBSCH is gone. Your PAYG cycle may have shifted to monthly without you realising. And the wage rates you've loaded haven't been updated to reflect the 4.75% increase. In this scenario, you've breached three separate compliance obligations in a single payrun: SG charge exposure, a PAYG remittance timing issue, and a Fair Work underpayment. None of these cancel each other out — each carries its own penalty.
The correct order of operations before 30 June is: (1) confirm your PAYG cycle for 2026–27 in the ATO portal, (2) set up and test a replacement clearing house for super payments, (3) update your payroll software to calculate super per payrun with a 7-business-day scheduling window, and (4) update all minimum wage and award rates to the 1 July 2026 figures. Do them in this order because steps 2 and 3 depend on having a live payment method ready before the first compliant payrun.
The four changes don't cancel each other out — each carries its own penalty regime. Addressing them in the right order before 30 June is the only way to avoid compounding exposure.
With less than 30 days to go, you need a specific list of actions — not general advice. Work through this checklist in order. If you have an accountant or bookkeeper, share this list with them today and confirm who is responsible for each item.
Items 1 through 4 are system and account setup tasks that need to be done first, because items 5 through 8 depend on them. Don't start testing your super payment process until you've confirmed your clearing house replacement. Don't update your payroll rates until you've confirmed your software supports Payday Super — otherwise you're running compliant rates through a non-compliant payment system.
If you complete only one item this week, make it item 3 — setting up your SBSCH replacement. Every other deadline depends on having a working super payment method in place.
Your 30-June payroll compliance checklist
SAB Account AI is updated for all four 1 July 2026 payroll changes — set up Payday Super, get your new clearing house connected, and run your first compliant July payrun in under 10 minutes at sabaccountai.com.
SAB Account AI — ATO-compliant invoicing and payslips for Australian small businesses. From $9/mo.
Start free trialThe ATO will apply an SG charge for that payrun, which includes the unpaid super amount, 10% per annum interest from the due date, and a $20 administration fee per employee. The charge is not tax-deductible, unlike regular super contributions — so missing even one payrun costs you more than just the super amount.
The ATO has not announced a formal grace period for Payday Super — the legislation is in force from 1 July 2026. Some administrative leniency may apply in early months for genuine first-time errors, but you should not plan for a grace period that has not been confirmed. Compliant systems must be in place from the first July payrun.
No — Payday Super, the SBSCH closure, and the minimum wage increase only apply to employers who pay wages to employees. As a sole trader with no employees, none of these four changes affect your obligations. However, if you engage contractors who are deemed employees under the contractor vs employee rules, you may still have super obligations — check the ATO's worker classification tool.
The Fair Work Commission's Pay and Conditions Tool (pay.fairwork.gov.au) lets you search by industry and job type to find the applicable modern award and current minimum rates. From 1 July 2026, all award rates increase by 4.75%, and the Pay and Conditions Tool will be updated with the new rates on or before 1 July.
It depends on the software. SAB Account AI is being updated before 30 June 2026 to support Payday Super calculations, per-payrun super scheduling, and the 1 July award rate increases. If you're using older or manual systems, you need to verify with your provider whether these four changes are covered — and if not, you need to either update the software or switch platforms before 1 July.