{"id":411193,"date":"2026-05-04T11:24:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T11:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/411193\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T11:24:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T11:24:20","slug":"unpaid-superannuation-costing-australian-workers-24-4-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/411193\/","title":{"rendered":"Unpaid superannuation costing Australian workers $24.4 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australian workers are being urged to check their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/superannuation\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"superannuation\">superannuation<\/a> payments, as a new analysis reveals one in four are being underpaid &#8211; often by thousands of dollars a year.Between 2018 and 2023, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/australia\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Australian\">Australian<\/a> workers were underpaid superannuation by a staggering $24.4 billion collectively, the analysis by the Super Members Council (SMC) found.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/new-south-wales\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"New South Wales\">New South Wales<\/a> had the highest total underpayments, totalling $8.1 billion, followed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/victoria\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Victoria\">Victoria<\/a> with $6.1 billion over the five-year period.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/ed4ea7f4-8ec1-4ed2-b139-f27965cfffd9.jpeg\"   alt=\"A major superannuation shake-up is set to impact more than 14 million Australian workers but many employers are still in the dark ahead of the July 1 deadline. \"\/>It&#8217;s hoped that payday super will make it easier for workers to spot and correct any underpayments in their superannuation. (9News)<\/p>\n<p>However, the highest figure for underpayment per individual was in the Northern Territory with an average amount of $2140 per year, closely followed by the Australian Capital Territory at $2120 a year.<\/p>\n<p>The figures were calculated by the SMC based on an analysis of the Australian Tax Office (ATO)&#8217;s 2 per cent sample file in 2018-19 and 2022-23.<\/p>\n<p>\ufeffAccording to their modelling, a worker underpaid by $1730 in super for just one year could enter retirement $30,000 worse off due to the loss of compounding investment returns.<\/p>\n<p>Experts believe this change will help reduce the amount of unpaid superannuation, which currently costs Australian workers $6 billion a year.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also hoped the change will increase transparency for workers, making it easier for them to spot and fix underpayments.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Unpaid super is a silent pay cut that&#8217;s cost Australian workers $24.4 billion in just the last five years alone,&#8221; SMC CEO Misha Schubert said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is money Australians have earned but never been paid \u2013 and it&#8217;s leaving millions significantly poorer at retirement.<\/p>\n<p>\ufeff&#8221;Unpaid super hits hardest where it hurts most \u2013 for women, younger workers and people on low incomes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian workers are being urged to check their superannuation payments, as a new analysis reveals one in four&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[138,246,111,139,69,244,245],"class_list":["post-411193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}