Super
Payday Super for Tradies (From 1 July 2026): Subbies, Allowances & Weekly Pay
From 1 July 2026, trades businesses must pay 12% super every payday and have it received by each fund within 7 business days. A plain-English guide for tradies and builders — subcontractors caught by super, which allowances are OTE, and what weekly pay means for your cash.
If you run a trades business — building, plumbing, electrical, landscaping, anything with a crew and a ute — payday super lands on you the same as everyone else from 1 July 2026. The 12% super you owe has to be received by each worker's fund within 7 business days of every payday, instead of being paid quarterly. For weekly-pay trades, that means a super deadline every week.
This guide is for the tradie or builder doing their own pay, or the bookkeeper who runs it. It covers the two things that trip trades up most: subcontractors and allowances.
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 — no change, no rise.
- 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 it is received by the fund, with all the info needed to allocate it, within 7 business days of the qualifying-earnings payday. Received-by, not sent-by. Business days, not calendar.
- No exemption for small or owner-operator 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. For trades, the practical work is sorting who's caught and what's OTE.
Subcontractors: the one to get right
This is the trap. 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 tell them what to do, they don't delegate, they're paid for their time/skill, not a result) → likely caught → 12% super on payday, received within 7 business days.
- Genuinely running their own business (supplying materials and labour for a fixed price, free to subcontract the work, taking on real commercial risk) → may not be caught.
The line is genuinely grey and the consequences of getting it wrong are real, so check borderline subbies with a registered tax or BAS agent before 1 July. The official position on who's covered is on the ATO's about payday super page.
Allowances: which ones carry super
Trades payroll is full of allowances — tool, travel, site, meal, leading-hand, first-aid. Because the reform doesn't change what's OTE, the rules you already apply still decide which allowances carry super. The difference from 1 July 2026 is when that super is due.
| Allowance type | Generally OTE? | Super on payday? |
|---|---|---|
| Leading-hand / supervisory allowance (for ordinary hours) | Often yes | Yes |
| Site or industry allowance tied to ordinary hours | Often yes | Yes |
| Tool allowance | Depends on the award/agreement | If OTE, yes |
| Travel allowance that is a genuine expense reimbursement | Generally no | No |
| Meal allowance that is a genuine reimbursement | Generally no | No |
| Overtime hours | No — not OTE | No |
| Commissions (e.g. on sales) | Always QE under the new rules | Yes |
Don't guess. Map every allowance line in your payroll against your award once, before the cutover, and you won't have to think about it again. If you pay any sales commissions, note that all commissions are qualifying earnings under the new rules — including those for work outside ordinary hours.
Weekly pay means a weekly deadline
Most trades pay weekly. Under quarterly super, you had roughly 12 super events a year. Under payday super with weekly pay, you have a super deadline every week — 52 separate 7-business-day clocks. Miss one and the new Super Guarantee Charge can apply.
That's also a cashflow shift. The super you owe is the same 12% over the year, but it now leaves your account every week instead of sitting there between quarterly runs. For a crew with variable hours, big-hours weeks are big-super weeks. See exactly what that does to your working capital with the free Payday Super cashflow calculator, and read what payday super does to your cashflow for the one-off catch-up hit when you switch.
New crew and stale fund details
Trades churn workers between jobs, which means lots of first contributions to new funds. The ATO gives you breathing room here: a new employee or a new fund's first contribution has 20 business days (not 7) after the qualifying-earnings day. Use it to get fund details right — then the next contribution lands inside the normal 7-day window.
Before 1 July 2026 — the trades checklist
- Decide your subbies' status (caught for super or not) and check the grey ones with a BAS agent.
- Map every allowance to OTE-or-not so super calculates right each week.
- Confirm your payroll software is payday-super-ready and reports YTD qualifying earnings + YTD super liability per worker via STP each payday.
- Check your clearing-house or fund turnaround beats 7 business days — slow remittance is now a compliance risk.
- 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 tradies 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.