The Australian Superannuation Guarantee – the proportion of wages that employers must contribute to their workers’ retirement savings – will increase from 9.5% to 10% on 1 July 2021.
How will this affect Employer Sponsored Employees?
The question has been raised if the extra 0.5% can be taken from the salaries of sponsored workers, as can be done with some Australian workers covered by specific awards or agreements.
This appears to be in conflict with the requirements of approved employer sponsored visas, where the sponsor has agreed to pay a specific Annual Market Salary Rate (AMSR) and guaranteed earnings.
The Migration Institute of Australia (MIA) believes it would be a breach of the visa rules for employers to extract the 0.5% from an sponsored workers salary, which specifies that contributions to a superannuation fund cannot be included in an employees’ earnings.
