Goodbye OTE, Hello Qualifying Earnings (QE)

If you’ve opened a compliance bulletin or logged into your payroll software recently, you’ve probably noticed a new two-letter acronym popping up: QE. 

As part of the structural shift to Payday Super, the ATO is bringing in a new calculation standard called “Qualifying Earnings (QE)” to work alongside your usual super setup. While you might be using Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE) as your main starting point, the new QE rule simplifies things by giving everyone a single, standard formula to follow. From 1 July 2026, superannuation guarantee contributions will generally be calculated at 12% of an employee’s Qualifying Earnings (QE), subject to the applicable legislative rules. 

For most small businesses, the actual dollar amount you pay super on won’t change. But to make sure your back-end configurations are tracking perfectly, here is a general overview at what goes into the new calculation standard and what stays out:

• What’s included in QE: base ordinary hours, casual loadings, shift and public holiday penalties, paid leave, and standard bonuses. 

• The big commission catch: under the old rules, commissions paid for work done entirely outside of regular hours were frequently excluded from the super case. Under QE, commissions are generally included regardless of what day or time the work happened, though standard exceptions, like age limits or the maximum contribution cap, still apply. 

• What’s excluded from QE: overtime payments, genuine expense reimbursement allowances (examples: tool or uniform allowances), and standard redundancy severance payouts. 

Under the new Payday Super regime, businesses are required to report both total QE and overall super liabilities on every STP (Single Touch Payroll) submission, in line with the ATO’s requirements. Manually mapping these pay items across a busy frontline introduces a lot of room for administrative error. 

With Deputy Payroll, Payday Super is handled directly within your normal pay run workflow, connecting your timesheets, pay runs, and super processes in a single platform. Built specifically for shift-based businesses, Deputy provides tools to automate your complex pay calculations and utilises built-in SuperAPI validation during onboarding to ensure you capture the correct employee super fund details from day one, keeping your real-time submissions accurate and on track. 

Disclaimer: While Deputy's platform is designed to simplify shift work and payroll through automation, this document is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. It is ultimately each customer's sole responsibility to pay their employees correctly and in compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements. Please review our Product Specific Terms for more information.