The maximum super contribution base is the quarterly earnings ceiling an employer uses to work out compulsory super guarantee (SG) payments. For the 2025-26 financial year it sits at $62,500 per quarter, and at the 12% SG rate that produces a maximum mandatory employer contribution of $7,500 per quarter per employee.1Australian Taxation Office. Super Guarantee Earnings an employee receives above that figure in a quarter carry no SG obligation. The quarterly structure ends on 30 June 2026: from 1 July 2026, payday super replaces it and the cap becomes an annual $250,000 figure instead.
The 2025-26 Quarterly Cap
Each quarter between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026, the cap is $62,500 in ordinary time earnings.1Australian Taxation Office. Super Guarantee The employer pays 12% SG on earnings up to that figure. Anything above is excluded from the SG calculation. The cap resets at the start of every quarter, so a quarter of high earnings doesn’t eat into the cap of another.
Take an employee who earns $100,000 in ordinary time earnings during a single quarter. The employer calculates SG on the first $62,500 only, producing $7,500 in super (12% of $62,500). The remaining $37,500 attracts no mandatory super. If the same employee earns $50,000 in the next quarter, the full $50,000 is subject to SG because it falls below the cap.1Australian Taxation Office. Super Guarantee
One important boundary: the ATO’s rule stops at the cap, but an employment contract or enterprise agreement can require 12% on the full salary. In that case the employer is contractually bound to keep paying above the cap, even though the ATO won’t penalise a business that stops at it. High-earning employees should read their contract terms before assuming the cap applies to them.
What Counts Toward the Cap
The cap is measured against ordinary time earnings (OTE). OTE covers pay for standard hours of work, including commissions, shift loadings, certain allowances, and performance bonuses tied to ordinary hours.2Australian Taxation Office. List of Payments That Are Ordinary Time Earnings
Several payments sit outside OTE and don’t count toward the cap. Overtime is the main exclusion, provided ordinary hours are clearly set out in the applicable award or agreement; if the overtime component can’t be separately identified, all hours get treated as ordinary. Termination-related payments such as unused personal or carer’s leave payouts, redundancy, and severance are also excluded, as are expense reimbursements.2Australian Taxation Office. List of Payments That Are Ordinary Time Earnings
Salary Sacrifice Doesn’t Shrink the Base
A salary sacrifice arrangement doesn’t reduce the earnings base an employer uses to calculate SG. Since 1 January 2020, minimum SG is calculated on the “OTE base,” defined as OTE plus any OTE amounts the employee sacrifices into super, and salary-sacrificed contributions don’t count toward the employer’s minimum SG obligation. In practice, an employer can’t point to sacrifice contributions and treat them as satisfying the SG obligation; the two sit side by side. The rule only applies to amounts sacrificed into super. Sacrifices for cars or expense payments don’t shift the SG calculation in either direction.3Australian Taxation Office. Salary Sacrifice and Super Guarantee (GN 2020/1)
What Changes on 1 July 2026
From 1 July 2026 the quarterly system ends. Under payday super, employers must pay SG for each payday, with contributions due in the employee’s fund within seven business days of the pay date.4Australian Taxation Office. Payday Super: How to Manage Super During the Changeover The maximum contribution base becomes an annual figure. For 2026-27, once an employer has paid qualifying earnings of $250,000 to an employee, no further SG is required for the rest of that year.5Australian Taxation Office. Maximum Contributions Base
At 12% SG, that $250,000 annual ceiling produces a maximum yearly SG obligation of $30,000, matching the concessional contributions cap exactly. The alignment is deliberate: it prevents mandatory employer contributions on their own from pushing an employee over the concessional limit. The terminology also shifts from “ordinary time earnings” to “qualifying earnings,” though the underlying concept is similar. Watch for updated ATO guidance on any differences in what payments are included.
Why the Cap Matters for High Earners
The cap limits what an employer must pay, but it doesn’t by itself keep a high earner inside the concessional contributions cap. For 2025-26, the general concessional cap is $30,000, and it counts all employer SG, salary sacrifice amounts, and personal contributions claimed as a deduction across every super fund. Four quarters of maximum SG at $7,500 each total $30,000, which hits the concessional cap exactly. If the employer is paying at the cap each quarter and the employee is also salary-sacrificing or claiming a personal deduction, the total will exceed $30,000. Excess concessional contributions get added to the individual’s assessable income and taxed at their marginal rate.6Australian Taxation Office. Contributions Caps
Carry-forward offers some relief. If your total super balance was under $500,000 at 30 June of the previous financial year, you can use unused concessional cap space from the previous five years. Unused amounts expire after five years.6Australian Taxation Office. Contributions Caps Anyone with a balance above $500,000 has no such buffer.
Division 293 Tax
High earners also face an additional 15% tax on concessional contributions through Division 293 when combined income and concessional contributions exceed $250,000. The 15% applies to the lesser of the taxable concessional contributions or the amount by which that combined total exceeds $250,000.7Australian Taxation Office. Division 293 Tax on Concessional Contributions by High-Income Earners An employee earning $260,000 with $30,000 in employer SG has a combined total of $290,000; Division 293 would apply to $30,000 (the lesser of the $30,000 in contributions or the $40,000 excess over $250,000), producing a $4,500 tax bill on top of the standard 15% contributions tax already deducted by the fund. The ATO issues these assessments automatically from tax return and super fund data.
Opting Out When You Have Multiple Employers
Employees who work for more than one employer in a financial year can breach the $30,000 concessional cap even when each individual employer stays within the quarterly contribution base. These employees can apply to the ATO for an SG employer shortfall exemption certificate, which releases one or more employers from their SG obligations for a specified period.8Australian Taxation Office. Super Guarantee Opt Out for High-Income Earners With Multiple Employers
You must have more than one employer during the year (including a mid-year change), and you must expect compulsory SG from those employers combined to exceed the concessional cap. Only the employee can apply, and the ATO must receive the application at least 30 days before the start of the period the certificate covers. A few catches: at least one employer must still be paying SG for you during the year, the employer named in the certificate can choose to keep contributing anyway, and once issued the certificate can’t be changed or revoked. As of early 2026, the ATO’s application form is still under development and is expected to become available mid-2026.8Australian Taxation Office. Super Guarantee Opt Out for High-Income Earners With Multiple Employers
How the Cap Is Indexed
The cap doesn’t stay fixed. Under the quarterly system, the ATO adjusts it each year using Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings (AWOTE) figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, with updates taking effect on 1 July. Indexation can go down as well as up: the 2025-26 quarterly cap of $62,500 is lower than the 2024-25 figure of $65,070.1Australian Taxation Office. Super Guarantee
From 2026-27, the annual maximum contribution base under payday super will also be indexed, though the ATO has not published the long-term indexation method for the new annual threshold. The 2026-27 figure is $250,000 in qualifying earnings.5Australian Taxation Office. Maximum Contributions Base Check ATO announcements each financial year for the updated amount.