Superannuation
Superannuation is money set aside for your retirement. Your employer pays a contribution on your behalf into a nominated super account. This is in addition to your salary or wage.
See Your superannuation basics on the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website for more.
Queensland Government employees receive higher employer superannuation contributions than the Commonwealth’s minimum guarantee rate.
Queensland Government’s superannuation contributions are:
- 18% for police officers under 60 years old (other than special constables)
- 14.25% for fire service officers
- 12.75% for all other employees under 75 years old.
These contribution rates apply to your salary, which is based on ordinary time earnings and includes all forms of paid leave and long parental leave. It also includes any ordinary time allowances, such as shift allowances and weekend penalties.
Your employer superannuation contributions are paid each pay period into your superannuation fund account.
For the purposes of the above employer superannuation contributions, your agency must be listed in Schedule 2 Part 1 of the Superannuation (State Public Sector) Notice 2021 (PDF, 803KB). If your agency is not listed, it might be included in the generic public service entity listing. If you’re unsure, it’s best to speak to your agency’s HR team about superannuation arrangements that apply to you.
If you are aged 75 years or older, you will only receive the superannuation guarantee rate of ordinary time earnings into your superannuation account.
If you are a fire service officer, your employer super contributions increased to 14.25% from 1 July 2023. You’ll be paid any applicable top-up contributions, including for 2022-23 to 14.25%, by the end of October 2023.
Superannuation on parental leave
Queensland Government employees are entitled to receive superannuation on the first 52 weeks of their long parental leave (paid and unpaid). See the Paid super on (paid and unpaid) parental leave policy for conditions and entitlements.
Long parental leave includes birth-related leave (including spousal leave), adoption leave, surrogacy leave and cultural parent leave. See the Industrial Relations Act 2016 for more.
Queensland Government’s superannuation on parental leave is in addition to the Australian Government’s paid parental leave.
If you’re under the age of 75, your employee contribution options will vary depending on if you are an accumulation member or a defined benefit member.
If you are 75 years or older, your superannuation fund can’t receive any employee contributions.
Accumulation members
Most Queensland Government employees, particularly if you were employed after 2008, are accumulation members.
If you are an accumulation member as of 1 July 2023, you’re not required to make contributions to receive the full employer contribution rate. However, your current contribution will not change unless you choose to change it. By default, your employee contribution is set at 5% of your base salary plus Governor in Council approved allowances. For police officers under the age of 60, yours are set to 6% and if you’re casually employed it is 0%. You can choose to change your rate at any time.
If you salary sacrifice your superannuation contributions, you can change your contribution rate by contacting your salary packaging provider.
If you do not salary sacrifice your superannuation contributions, you can change your contributions through your agency’s payroll self-service option (if available) or by completing the below form.
Start or change superannuation contributions form
If you change agencies, your employee contribution rate may revert to the default rate. You can update this by advising your new employer via their payroll self-service option (if available) or by completing the above form.
Before changing your contribution, consider whether you need financial advice. For more information, visit Moneysmart or speak to your superannuation fund. See Advice about your QSuper account if you’re a QSuper member.
Defined benefit members
You must contribute between 2% and 5% of your superannuable salary, if you are a defined benefit member. For police officers, the rate is between 3% and 6%.
You can salary package this contribution, but it will be at a higher rate to account for contributions tax.
You can change your mandatory employee contribution rate from the default 5% to 4%, 3% or 2% of your superannuable salary. If you are a police officer, you can reduce your rate from 6% to 5%, 4% or 3%. Making this change determines the growth of your retirement benefit and your multiple will not grow as quickly. If you have been contributing less than 5%, you might be able to make catch up contributions.
Your payroll provider will make a top-up payment into your accumulation account if:
- you’re a defined benefit member
- your employer contributions to your defined benefit account were less than 12.75% of ordinary time earnings.
The top-up payment is the difference between your employer’s defined benefit contribution and 12.75% of ordinary time earnings.
Police officers and fire service officers will also receive a top-up payment where the employer contributions are less than 18% of ordinary time earnings for police officers under 60 years old and 14.25% of ordinary time earnings for fire service officers.
This top-up payment makes your employer contributions equal to those of accumulation members.
This top-up payment will count towards your concessional contributions. You need to consider if you will exceed your concessional contributions cap for the current financial year.
Concessional contributions that are made to your superannuation account are:
- employer contributions
- any pre-tax (salary sacrificed or salary packaged) contribution you make
- any post-tax contributions you make for which you claim a tax deduction.
Concessional contributions are taxed at 15% instead of your marginal tax rate.
The concessional contributions cap changes from time to time and if you exceed this cap, you may have to pay additional tax. If this happens, the ATO will contact you directly with your available options.
You might be able to reduce your salary for superannuation purposes without reducing your take home pay if:
- you’re an accumulation member and
- your employer contributions exceed the concessional contributions cap.
You will need to make an agreement with your agency within the first 4 months of the financial year using the below form. This may affect your overall remuneration unless you’re on a total remuneration package.
You may wish to consider seeking independent financial advice about your options.
Total remuneration packages
A total remuneration package is where an employee receives a salary package, expressed as a fixed amount, that includes the employee’s salary and all benefits, including superannuation. If you’re on a total remuneration package, subject to your employer’s remuneration policy, you could agree with your employer to:
- a salary for superannuation purposes 162.7 KB) that ensures your employer contributions are equal to the concessional contributions cap, if your concessional contributions will exceed the cap
- an employer contribution rate that meets the minimum Commonwealth guarantee rate to increase your take home pay.
Speak with your agency’s HR team to find out if these options are available.
If you’re a senior executive officer or on a section 155 contract, you’re not on a total remuneration package.
QSuper, part of Australian Retirement Trust, is the Queensland Government’s default superannuation fund for core Queensland Government employees.
If you are an accumulation member, you can stay with QSuper or nominate an alternative fund when completing your payroll forms. You can also change your fund at any time (once per year). Contact your agency’s payroll team for information on your employer’s process for nominating a superannuation fund for your contributions.
See moneysmart.gov.au for more on choosing the right fund.
Core Queensland Government employees
Core Queensland Government employees are employees employed under either the:
- Ambulance Service Act 1991
- District Court of Queensland Act 1967
- Fire and Emergency Services Act 1990
- Hospital and Health Boards Act 2011
- Industrial Relations Act 2016
- Land Court Act 2000
- Magistrates Act 1991
- Parliamentary Service Act 1988
- Parliament of Queensland Act 2001
- Police Service Administration Act 1990
- Public Sector Act 2022, Chapter 4 or Chapter 5
- Solicitor-General Act 1985
- Supreme Court of Queensland Act 1991.
If you’re not a core Queensland Government employee, speak to your supervisor or contact your agency’s HR team to find out who your default superannuation fund is and whether you can choose your own.
Visit the ATO’s Super page for help.