Wages
Minimum wages depend on a person’s job description/title and the industry that they work in. To ensure that your business is complying with these you will need to contact Fair Work to guide you to the Awards. These awards show the minimum wage, penalty rates, overtime, allowances, and apprentice and trainee pay obligations.
Employers are legally obligated to keep records for seven years about employees including
- General Records – commencement date, tax file number and the basis of the employee’s employee ie full time, part time and casual.
- Pay Records – Gross and Net wage amounts and pay rates.
- Hours of Work Records
- Leave Records – Leave that has been taken and the balance of the employee’s entitlement
- Superannuation Contributions Record – to show when an employer has paid these and amount outstanding amounts that need to be paid.
Superannuation
From 1 July 2014 employers are required to pay 9.5% superannuation contributions on behalf of their employees who earn $450 or more per month and are over 18. If your employee is under 18 they need to earn more than $450 per month and work over 30 hours per week. Employers calculate the super contributions based on ordinary time earnings.
You must make payments at least 4 times a year (some employers choose to pay employee superannuation monthly to help with cash flow) by the due dates. The following is the due date for superannuation contributions and if employers do not meet these deadline interest penalties and fines will be applied;
- January to March due date 28th April
- April to June due date 28th July
- July to September due date 28th October
- October to December due date 28th January
No extensions will be granted by the ATO.
To assist employers with meet their employer superannuation obligations they have created Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH) an online program. This system saves you from logging into each employee’s superannuation fund and now you can pay one amount and the SBSCH will disburse it for you.