Paying super for employees aged under 18

https://help.myob.com/wiki/x/F43tB

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According to the ATO, you need to pay superannuation guarantee contributions for employees aged under 18 if:

they work for you more than 30 hours in any week, and
you pay them $450 or more (before tax) in salary or wages in a calendar month (prior to 1 July 2022). The $450 threshold is being removed from 1 July 2022.

This means when you pay employees aged under 18, you'll need to check how many hours they've worked and, if necessary, adjust the super in their pay.

We're working on a solution that'll help to automate this process in AccountRight. In the meantime, the steps below will ensure you stay compliant with the ATO's requirements.

1. Check the hours worked

When you pay an employee who's under 18, keep an eye on how many hours they work each week. If they're on a weekly pay cycle and they work 30 hours or less in a week, you don't need to pay them super for that week. You can simply enter the hours you're paying them and remove the calculated super amount from their pay.

If an under 18 employee is paid fortnightly or monthly, you'll need to determine how many hours they worked each week in that pay period. If they worked more than 30 hours in any week during the pay period, you'll need to pay super for that week.

Take a look at this example for a monthly paid employee aged under 18 whose hours vary each week.

	Hours worked	Is super payable?
Week 1	25	No
Week 2	32	Yes
Week 3	30	No
Week 4	31	Yes

Based on this example, you'll need to pay super for weeks 2 and 4 where they worked more than 30 hours. So when you pay them, you'd need to pay super on 63 hours (32 hours + 31 hours).

2. Adjust the super in the employee's pay

Once you've worked out how many hours you need to pay super on, you can calculate the super amount during the pay run. You can then adjust the super amount in the employee's pay.

Start the pay run as usual. Need a refresher?
Click the blue zoom arrow to open the employee's pay.
Calculate the super amount you need to pay this employee:
1. In the Hours field for the Base Hourly payroll category, enter the number of hours you need to pay super for. Using our example above for a monthly paid employee, this is 63.
2. Take note of the calculated Superannuation Guarantee amount.
In the Hours field for the Base Hourly payroll category, enter the number of hours the employee is being paid for this pay period. Using our example above, this is 118.
Overtype the Superannuation Guarantee with the amount you noted above. If the employee isn't entitled to any super for this pay, change this amount to zero ($0.00).
Complete the pay run as normal.