Your payslip has two totals that are meant to differ, gross and net, a tax line called PAYG, and a super line. Learn to read those three, then confirm the super reaches your fund.
The fun kind of disclaimer. Not financial advice. Just a translation service for the document your employer emails you every fortnight, assumes you understand, and never once explains. Nobody sat any of us down for the payslip lesson, and yet here it is, quietly running your whole financial life.
Your payslip is the most important financial document you receive all year, and it is written like a receipt from a parallel universe. Rows of acronyms, two different totals that do not match, and a number for super that you may never have looked at twice.
It also changed this month. On 1 July 2026, the rules about when your employer pays your super, and what they calculate it on, both changed. So this is a good moment to learn to read the thing.
The terms, decoded
- Two totals matter: gross (before tax) and net (what lands in your account). They are meant to differ. Tax and deductions are the gap.
- Since 1 July 2026, super is paid on every payday rather than quarterly, and it must reach your fund within 7 business days of you being paid. New employees can take longer.
- Super is 12% of your qualifying earnings, a base that now includes commissions and salary-sacrificed amounts, not just ordinary time earnings.
- YTD figures are your financial-year running totals since 1 July. Handy at tax time and for spotting anything odd.
- You are allowed to query your own payslip. Errors happen, and the person they cost is usually you.
The payslip is a standardised record of remuneration, statutory withholding and mandated superannuation contributions, ensuring compliance and transparency in the employment relationship.
The payslip is where you find out whether the super you are owed is being paid. It only has that power if you can read it. Until this month you would have waited a quarter to find out. Now you can check within a fortnight.
Open your most recent payslip and find three things: your gross pay, your net pay, and your super line. Check the super looks like roughly 12% of your earnings.
Then do the part that is newly possible. Because super now has to reach your fund within 7 business days of payday, log into your super account a couple of weeks after a pay run and confirm the money arrived. Payslips show what your employer says they paid. Your fund shows what turned up. Those two things are not always the same, and unpaid super is a quiet, cumulative leak that compounds across a career. If the money is not there, that is a question for your employer first. The ATO is the agency responsible for unpaid super guarantee.