Super

Payday Super for Cleaning Businesses (From 1 July 2026): Casual-Heavy Payroll

From 1 July 2026, cleaning businesses must pay 12% super every payday and have it received by each fund within 7 business days. A plain-English guide for casual-heavy cleaning payrolls — subcontractors, scattered shifts, stale fund details, and what to do before the SBSCH closes 30 June 2026.

Cleaning is one of the most casual-heavy industries there is — split, scattered shifts across multiple sites, high turnover, and sometimes subcontracted crews. From 1 July 2026, payday super lands a firm rule on top of all that: the 12% super you owe must be received by each worker's fund within 7 business days of every payday, instead of being paid quarterly.

This guide is for the cleaning business owner or the bookkeeper running the pay. It focuses on the things a casual-heavy cleaning payroll has to nail: subcontractor status, scattered-shift pay, and keeping fund details clean.

General information only — not financial, tax, superannuation, or legal advice. Confirm every requirement with the ATO (ato.gov.au), the Fair Work Ombudsman (fairwork.gov.au), or a registered tax or BAS agent before acting.

What changes on 1 July 2026

The reform is about timing, not the rate. Confirmed against the ATO:

• The rate stays 12% for FY2026-27 — unchanged, not rising.
• Super is calculated on Qualifying Earnings (QE) paid each payday — broadly OTE plus certain other payments. What counts as OTE has not changed.
• The 7-business-day rule: super is on time only if received by the fund, with everything needed to allocate it, within 7 business days of the qualifying-earnings payday. Received-by, not sent-by. Business days, never calendar.
• No exemption for small or casual-heavy businesses, and the obligation extends to independent contractors paid mainly for their labour.

The full background is in the complete employer guide to payday super.

Subcontractors: the cleaning trap

Cleaning runs heavily on subcontracted labour, and this is where the risk concentrates. A subcontractor can be an "employee" for super purposes if you pay them mainly for their personal labour — and payday super applies to them. The reform doesn't change who is caught; it changes how fast you must pay. So the subbies you already owe super to now have a 7-business-day deadline on every pay.

A rough way to think about it:

• Mainly supplying their own labour (you direct the work, they don't delegate, they're paid for their time, not a fixed result) → likely caught → 12% super on payday, received within 7 business days.
• Genuinely running their own cleaning business (supplying equipment and materials, working to a fixed-price result, free to subcontract, carrying real commercial risk) → may not be caught.

The line is genuinely grey and getting it wrong now triggers the new Super Guarantee Charge, so check borderline cleaners with a registered tax or BAS agent before 1 July. The ATO's position on who's covered is on its about payday super page.

Scattered shifts, scattered pay — but one clock per payday

Cleaning shifts are short, spread across sites and times, and vary week to week. That makes pay vary — and under payday super, the super varies with it and leaves with each run. Each payday is its own 7-business-day clock; there's no catching it up on the next run.

Because the reform doesn't change what's OTE, the rules you already apply still decide what super is due on:

The annual super is the same 12% — this is a timing shift, not a bigger bill. But for a casual-heavy roster, big-hours weeks become big-super weeks, due within 7 business days. Model it with the free Payday Super cashflow calculator, which shows your super-per-payday, annualised super, and the working capital that stops sitting in your account between batched runs. For the one-off catch-up when you switch, read what payday super does to your cashflow.

Stale fund details are the silent killer

In a high-churn cleaning payroll, the single most common cause of a late contribution isn't cash — it's wrong or missing fund details. The 7-business-day clock only stops when the fund receives the money with the information it needs to allocate it. A bounced or unallocatable contribution can blow the deadline even if you paid on time.

Two things help:

1. The 20-business-day window for first contributions. A new employee or a new fund's first contribution has 20 business days (not 7). Use it to lock in correct fund details before the normal 7-day clock applies to every later pay.
2. A clean onboarding step. Capture and verify each new cleaner's fund details before their first pay, so contributions allocate first time.

Before 1 July 2026 — the cleaning checklist

• Decide your subbies' status (caught for super or not) and check the grey ones with a BAS agent.
• Confirm your payroll software is payday-super-ready and reports YTD qualifying earnings + YTD super liability per worker via STP each payday.
• Map pay items (loadings, penalties, allowances, overtime) to OTE-or-not so super is right every run.
• Clean up fund details for your casual base now — this is where late contributions come from.
• Check your clearing-house or fund turnaround beats 7 business days.
• Migrate off the SBSCH before it closes 11:59pm AEST 30 June 2026 — see the SBSCH closing guide.
• Run a dummy pay before 1 July to confirm super is received within 7 business days end to end.

Work the full 12-point readiness check and grab the free Payday Super readiness checklist and pack — built for cleaning operators and the bookkeepers who run their pay.

Estimate and general information only — not advice. Figures and dates are based on ATO, Treasury and legislation published as at 8 June 2026 and may be updated. Confirm with the ATO or a registered tax/BAS agent before acting. Super must be received by the employee's fund within 7 business days of payday from 1 July 2026; the SBSCH closes 11:59pm AEST 30 June 2026.

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