Super
Payday Super for Cafes & Hospitality (From 1 July 2026): Casuals, Tips & Split Shifts
From 1 July 2026, cafe and hospitality employers must pay 12% super on every payday and have it received by each fund within 7 business days. A plain-English guide for casual-heavy venues — what counts, what doesn't, and what to do before the SBSCH closes 30 June 2026.
If you run a cafe, restaurant, bar or any hospitality venue, your payroll already has more moving parts than most: casuals on different rates, split shifts, penalty rates, public-holiday loadings, and people who come and go. From 1 July 2026, payday super adds one firm rule to all of it — the 12% super you owe has to be received by each employee's fund within 7 business days of every payday, not batched up and paid quarterly.
This guide is for the venue owner or the bookkeeper running a hospitality payroll. It covers what's caught, what isn't, and the specific things casual-heavy venues need to sort before the cutover.
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 actually changes for a venue
Right now you may pay super monthly or quarterly, long after the shifts were worked. From 1 July 2026 that ends. The headline facts, confirmed against the ATO:
- The rate is 12% for FY2026-27 — unchanged, and not rising.
- Super is calculated on Qualifying Earnings (QE) paid on each payday, not pooled per quarter. QE is essentially OTE plus certain other payments. What counts as OTE has not changed.
- The 7-business-day rule: super is on time only if it is received by the fund — with everything the fund needs to allocate it — within 7 business days of the qualifying-earnings payday. Received-by, not sent-by. Business days, never calendar.
- No small-business or casual exemption. Every employer is in, regardless of size or workforce mix.
For the full background, see the complete employer guide to payday super. The change isn't about how much super you owe — it's about how fast it has to land.
The hospitality pay items, one by one
Hospitality payroll lives or dies on getting pay items right. Because the reform doesn't change what's OTE, the rules you already follow still decide what super is due on — you're just paying it sooner. Here's how the common items sit:
| Pay item | Part of qualifying earnings? | Super due on payday? |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary hours (casual, part-time, full-time) | Yes — it's OTE | Yes |
| Casual loading on ordinary hours | Yes — OTE | Yes |
| Penalty rates for ordinary hours (weekend, late-night) | Yes — OTE | Yes |
| Public-holiday loading on ordinary hours | Yes — OTE | Yes |
| Allowances that are OTE (e.g. certain shift allowances) | Yes — OTE | Yes |
| Overtime (where ordinary hours are clearly identified) | No — not OTE | No |
| Tips paid directly by customers to staff | Generally not OTE | Generally no |
| Salary-sacrificed amounts that would have been QE | Yes — included | Yes |
Two items trip up venues most often. Overtime is not qualifying earnings, provided your award or agreement clearly identifies ordinary hours — so don't accrue super on it. Commissions, if you pay any (rare in hospitality but common where a function or events role exists), are always qualifying earnings under the new rules, even commissions earned solely for work outside ordinary hours. When in doubt, map the item against your award and check with a BAS agent.
Why casual-heavy payroll feels the change most
A venue running mostly casuals does pay runs that swing hard week to week — a quiet Tuesday roster versus a fully-booked long weekend. Under quarterly super, those swings averaged out before you paid. Under payday super, the super leaves with each run, so a big-takings fortnight is also a big-super fortnight, due within 7 business days.
That's a cashflow-timing shift, not a bigger bill — the annual super is the same 12%. But the timing matters when your week-to-week cash is already tight. Run your own numbers with the free Payday Super cashflow calculator: it shows your super-per-payday, your annualised super, and the working-capital that stops sitting in your account between batched runs. For the deeper mechanics, including the one-off catch-up when you switch, read what payday super does to your cashflow.
The split-shift and short-tenure traps
Two things make hospitality different from a 9-to-5 payroll:
- Split shifts and irregular rosters mean a single employee can have very different pay (and super) across consecutive paydays. Each payday stands on its own for the 7-business-day clock — there's no "I'll catch it up next run."
- High turnover. Hospitality churns staff fast, which means lots of first contributions to new funds. The ATO gives a longer deadline here: a new employee or a new fund's first contribution has 20 business days (not 7) after the qualifying-earnings day. Use it — but get the fund details right the first time so the second contribution lands inside the normal 7-day window.
What to do before 1 July 2026
A short, venue-specific checklist:
- Confirm your payroll software is payday-super-ready and reports year-to-date qualifying earnings and YTD super liability per employee each payday via Single Touch Payroll.
- Check your clearing-house or fund turnaround beats 7 business days. A slow clearing house is now a compliance risk, not just an annoyance.
- Map every pay item (loadings, penalties, allowances, tips, overtime) to "QE or not" so super calculates correctly every run.
- Chase missing or stale fund details for casuals now — they cause the late and bounced contributions that blow the deadline.
- Sort the clearing-house move. The SBSCH closes 11:59pm AEST 30 June 2026; see the SBSCH closing guide for alternatives.
- Do a dummy run before 1 July to confirm super is received inside 7 business days end to end.
Work through the full 12-point readiness check — and grab the free Payday Super readiness checklist and pack while you're there. It's built for time-poor venue 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.