Labor puts 15% super guarantee on the backburner
Labor has long supported raising the superannuation guarantee to 15%, but senior government figures have indicated its priorities lie elsewhere.
The Albanese government has all but kiboshed plans to reach a 15% superannuation guarantee for the foreseeable future, as it looks to bed down existing reforms including payday super and paid parental leave.
In June 2022, Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said the government would look at the “pathways beyond 12% at the backend of this term”.
But asked whether the government would task Treasury to look at raising the superannuation guarantee further before the next election, a spokesperson for Jones said its focus was on “boosting wages and making sure every dollar of superannuation is paid”.
The super guarantee — the percentage of an employee’s salary that an employer must pay into their super account — is set to rise 0.5 percentage points to 11.5% on 1 July this year, then a further 0.5 percentage point rise to 12% on 1 July 2025. There are no further rises legislated but Labor has long supported increasing the SG to 15% with the policy in its official party platform.
