­Increases to minimum & award wages; Super Guarantee

Following the Annual Wage Review 2021, the Fair Work Commission announced a 2.5% increase to the national minimum wage and all award wages.

Where Purpose is supporting clients with bookkeeping services, we have applied the relevant changes via Xero / payroll systems to ensure employees have a seamless transition to the new rates.

For those covered by awards, the increases will occur in three stages, depending on the Award grouping that applies:

• Most awards increased from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2021. This includes the SCHADS Award and Children’s Services Award.
• The increase for the Retail Award applies from the first full pay period on or after 1 September 2021
• 21 awards increase from the first full pay period on or after 1 November 2021 (these include areas such as tourism, aviation, hospitality, arts, sporting organisations, recreation etc)

For more details see the FairWork award pay guides.

For any employees not covered by an award or an agreement, the new national minimum wage is $772.60 per week (or $20.33 per hour).

From 1 July, the superannuation guarantee increased from 9.5% to 10%. For organisations using Xero Payroll, the system applied this automatically. See more information and a calculator tool on the ATO website.