2026-27 Payroll Changes Australia: Employment Hero Checks

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Checked against Employment Hero’s Help Centre and current Australian guidance on 13/08/2026.

The short version

1. Payday Super now links each pay run to a seven-business-day fund-receipt deadline and uses qualifying earnings.
2. National and award minimum wages rose from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July 2026, with an additional Nurses Award increase from 1 August for eligible employees.
3. Employment Hero can automate parts of the rollover, but overrides, award settings and payment failures still need a controlled check.

Full detail below.

2026-27 payroll changes Australia: what changed on 1 July?

The 2026-27 payroll changes Australia introduced go beyond new rates. Payday Super moved super from a quarterly process into every pay cycle. The statutory calculation base changed from OTE to qualifying earnings. National and award minimum wages increased, PAYG withholding tables changed, Paid Parental Leave expanded and several indexed thresholds moved. Payd Co is an Employment Hero Certified Partner, and this guide separates platform updates from the checks an employer still owns.

Separate payment-date updates from configuration-dependent changes and manual checks.

Change	Effective date	Employment Hero action
Payday Super and qualifying earnings	Earnings paid from 1 July 2026	Confirm contribution timing, category mapping, clearing-house acceptance and fund receipt
National Minimum Wage and award rates	First full pay period starting on or after 1 July 2026	Install or update rates, then test classifications and rule outputs
Additional Nurses Award rates	First full pay period starting on or after 1 August 2026	Apply the updated package or rates and test eligible classifications
Resident tax-rate and PAYG table changes	Payments from 1 July 2026	Confirm the current tax tables loaded and test representative employees
HELP and other study-loan thresholds	2026-27 income year	Confirm the new withholding schedule loaded
Paid Parental Leave	Children born or adopted from 1 July 2026	Update payment expectations and check payroll coding against Services Australia instructions
Indexed ETP and redundancy limits	Payments in 2026-27	Confirm the termination date, payment type and current ATO limit before processing
ACT and NT payroll tax changes	1 July 2026	Review registration and rate settings if the business or group is in scope

Payday Super is now part of every pay run

From 1 July 2026, employers calculate SG on qualifying earnings and pay it for each payday. The SG rate remains 12%.

For most employees, the amount included in the base is close to the old OTE calculation. OTE, eligible salary-sacrifice amounts and all commissions are qualifying earnings. The main new payment is a commission earned wholly outside ordinary hours, which was excluded from OTE but is now included.

The deadline is based on receipt. The ATO says the fund generally must receive the contribution within seven business days after payday, with enough information to allocate it to the employee. Some exceptions apply, including a longer period for certain new employees.

What Employment Hero handles

Employment Hero calculates super from the pay categories and rates attached to the employee. Payroll data and contribution files provide the starting point for payment.

What still needs checking

• each pay category is mapped to qualifying earnings correctly
• the contribution was accepted and received, not only submitted
• rejected or unmatched payments are resolved inside the deadline
• salary sacrifice and leave loading are treated correctly
• employee and fund details are complete before payday

Payd Co’s managed process reconciles the pay-run liability to the payment result and works exceptions before they become late contributions. For a detailed category review, see why Employment Hero super can calculate incorrectly.

The maximum contribution base is annual and set at $270,830

The old quarterly cap has been replaced by an annual maximum contribution base. The ATO confirms the 2026-27 amount is $270,830.

Once an employee’s qualifying earnings paid in the year reach that amount, statutory SG is not required on further qualifying earnings for the remainder of the financial year. Extra super under an award or enterprise agreement can still apply.

This is a year-to-date control. Payroll needs to stop at the correct point for the correct employee, keep any industrial-instrument contribution running and restart statutory SG in the new year. Payd Co tests high-income cases separately because a broad manual override can switch off more than the annual cap allows.

Minimum wages and modern award rates increased

Fair Work confirms that, from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July 2026:

• the National Minimum Wage is $1,004.90 per week or $26.44 per hour
• modern award minimum wages increased by 4.75%

The effective date is not always the first calendar day in the pay run. If a weekly pay period began before 1 July, the new minimum applies from the next full pay period starting on or after that date.

What Employment Hero handles

An installed pre-built award can carry updated rate data into the payroll platform. A correctly configured employee then uses the new classification rate from the applicable pay period.

What still needs checking

The platform cannot decide whether the employee is on the right award or classification, whether a salary remains sufficient after the increase, or whether an unlocked custom rule set needs manual maintenance. Test a representative employee from every classification, employment type and rule-set variation. Include weekend, public-holiday, overtime and allowance cases.

For the configuration detail behind that test, see Employment Hero’s pre-built awards: more than activate and use.

Some Nurses Award rates increased again from 1 August 2026

The 1 July annual wage increase was not the final 2026 rate change for every employee. Fair Work confirms that additional increases apply from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 August 2026 for eligible enrolled and registered nurses working in aged care.

Do not apply it to everyone under the Nurses Award. Confirm the stream and classification, test one eligible employee at each affected level and retain the Fair Work rate comparison.

PAYG withholding tables changed with the 15% tax rate

For resident taxpayers, the rate on taxable income between the tax-free threshold and $45,000 fell from 16% to 15% for 2026-27. The other brackets remain 30%, 37% and 45%. The ATO published new PAYG withholding schedules and tax tables for payments from 1 July 2026.

Use the published table, not a hand-applied 1% adjustment. Test employees below and above $45,000, with study debt and with a Medicare variation; declarations and employee settings still change the result.

The HELP repayment threshold is $69,528

The ATO’s 2026-27 study and training loan table sets the nil-repayment band at $0 to $69,528. Between $69,529 and $129,717, the compulsory repayment is 15 cents for each dollar over $69,528; higher-income calculations use the next band.

Check that the employee’s declaration records the loan and the current withholding table is loaded.

Paid Parental Leave increased to 26 weeks

For a child born or adopted from 1 July 2026, Services Australia provides 130 Parental Leave Pay days, equal to 26 weeks on a five-day week. The previous entitlement was 120 days or 24 weeks.

The ATO pays a 12% super contribution for eligible Parental Leave Pay after the relevant financial year; the employer does not calculate that government contribution.

Payroll still needs the correct category, withholding and STP treatment. Do not add employer SG to the government payment solely because the ATO will later make its PPL super contribution.

ETP and genuine redundancy limits were indexed

The ATO’s 2026-27 thresholds include:

• a $270,000 ETP cap for life and death benefit termination payments
• a genuine redundancy and early-retirement tax-free base limit of $13,598
• a further $6,801 for each complete year of service

These limits do not make every termination payment concessionally taxed. Confirm the payment type, age, service, whole-of-income cap and reason employment ended, then reconcile tax and STP labels. Obtain tax or legal advice where treatment is unclear.

Payroll tax changed in the ACT and for large NT groups

• In the ACT, the annual threshold fell to $1.75 million. The 2026-27 general rate starts at 6.75% for Australia-wide wages over $1.75 million and not more than $20 million, with higher bands above that.
• In the NT, the rate is 6.5% for employers or payroll-tax groups with Australia-wide wages of $100 million or more. The general 5.5% rate and $2.5 million threshold remain for employers below that wage level.

Check grouping and interstate-wage rules before changing a rate, then update registrations and liability settings.

The 2026-27 Employment Hero payroll check

A clean rollover needs first-pay-run evidence. Check:

1. the pay period and payment date used the right wage and tax rules
2. a sample from every award classification and employment type
3. the 1 August Nurses Award increase for eligible aged-care employees
4. qualifying-earnings mapping, leave loading and salary sacrifice
5. super submission, acceptance and fund-receipt exceptions
6. HELP, Medicare and other employee tax settings
7. annual caps and termination thresholds only where they apply
8. ACT or NT payroll tax settings where relevant

Employment Hero automates repeatable calculations once the inputs are right. Payd Co confirms updates, tests exceptions and reconciles outputs before finalisation.

Does Employment Hero update 2026-27 tax tables automatically?

The payroll platform should apply the current withholding tables based on the payment date. Confirm this with a test across representative employees before finalising the first July-dated pay run, because employee declarations and overrides still affect the result.

What is the 2026-27 maximum contribution base?

The ATO confirms an annual maximum contribution base of $270,830 for qualifying earnings paid in 2026-27. Additional super required by an award or enterprise agreement can continue above that statutory base.

Did Paid Parental Leave increase to 24 or 26 weeks in July 2026?

It increased from 24 weeks to 26 weeks for children born or adopted from 1 July 2026. Services Australia describes the entitlement as 130 days based on a five-day week.