If you're running a generic salaried payroll, that summary is probably close enough. But if you're operating under the SCHADS Award, it isn't. You have allowances, loadings, broken shifts, sleepovers, and pay point progressions to contend with and under Payday Super, every single pay run needs to get the superable earnings calculation right.
Not once a quarter. Every time.
This article is specifically for NDIS providers, disability support organisations, and home care operators running SCHADS payroll. Here's what actually changes for you on 1 July 2026, and what you need to sort out before then.
What Changes (and What Doesn't)
Let's get the basics out of the way first, because there's a lot of noise about this.
Payday Super does not increase your super costs. The Super Guarantee rate stays at 12%. What changes is the timing: from 1 July 2026, super contributions must be paid within 7 business days of each payday. Not at the end of the quarter. Not 28 days after quarter end. Within 7 business days of paying wages.
For most NDIS providers, that means super is no longer a quarterly liability sitting on your books. It becomes a pay-cycle outflow, moving with wages instead of sitting behind them. For organisations running on tight NDIA pricing margins, that cash flow shift matters.
The ATO Small Business Super Clearing House also closes on 1 July. If your super payments currently go through the SBSCH, you need a replacement before then. We'll come back to this.
Get our free guide to everything employers need to know for the Payday Super changes.
Why This Is More Complex Under the SCHADS Award
Here's where the SCHADS-specific challenge kicks in.
To calculate super correctly, payroll needs to correctly identify which earnings attract the Super Guarantee and which don't. Under the legislation, this is now formalised as Qualifying Earnings (QE) — the earnings base used to calculate how much super must be paid each pay run.
For most SCHADS employers, Qualifying Earnings will align closely with what you're currently treating as Ordinary Time Earnings. But "closely" isn't the same as "automatically." And the complexity of SCHADS allowances and loadings means the margin for error is real.
Under the SCHADS Award, your payroll includes payments like
- Overtime at various penalty rates
- Saturday, Sunday, and public holiday loadings
- Broken shift allowances
- Sleepover allowances
- Remote work and travel allowances
- Qualification and first aid allowances
- Irregular hours and on-call components
Each of these has its own superannuation treatment. Some attract super. Some don't. Some depend on how the payment is classified in your payroll system.
Under quarterly super, a miscategorised allowance could sit quietly generating underpayments for three months before anyone noticed.
Under Payday Super, that same error repeats itself every pay run. If your earning categories are incorrectly mapped in your payroll system on 1 July, you could be underpaying or overpaying super from the very first pay cycle under the new rules.
That is not a recoverable situation you want to find yourself in during an NDIS audit.
The Sleepover Question
Sleepover shifts deserve their own mention because they've already been the subject of significant compliance attention in the sector and their superannuation treatment is a question we hear regularly.
The superannuation treatment of sleepover allowances under the SCHADS Award can depend on how those shifts are classified and how your payroll is configured. This is not an area to leave to assumption.
If you're not confident about how sleepovers are being treated in your system, this is the time to check. The Payday Super deadline is a natural trigger for reviewing your setup end to end.
What to Review Before 1 July
Your earning categories and super mapping. Go through every pay category in your system and confirm whether it's correctly mapped as superable or non-superable. Pay particular attention to allowances, loadings, and any custom categories you've created over time. If you're not certain, check.
Your clearing house arrangement. If you're using the ATO Small Business Super Clearing House, you need a SuperStream-enabled alternative before 1 July. The SBSCH won't accept new contributions after it closes. Your replacement needs to be set up, tested, and connected to your payroll before the deadline — not on 1 July.
Your settlement timeframes. Payday Super requires contributions to reach the fund within 7 business days of payday. That doesn't start when you authorise the payment in your payroll system — it ends when the money has cleared into the employee's super fund. Different clearing houses have different processing times. Factor that into your pay run workflow.
Your approval process. If your payroll and finance approvals are handled by different people or teams, the 7-business-day window means those processes need to run in parallel, not sequentially. Map out who needs to do what and when.
Your cash flow forecasting. Super is moving from a quarterly liability to a pay-cycle expense. If you're forecasting cash for an NDIS operation, your model needs to reflect this. It's not an increase in what you owe — it's a change in when it leaves.
What Prepared Looks Like
Organisations that are genuinely ready for Payday Super will experience the change on 1 July as a workflow update. Their systems will calculate super correctly on every pay run. Their clearing house will process and settle payments within the compliance window. Their teams will know exactly what to do.
Organisations that leave this until June (or assume their current setup is fine without checking) are more likely to hit the deadline with unchecked category mappings, a clearing house they haven't transitioned away from, and a settlement timeline they haven't verified.
The SCHADS Award is complicated enough without adding a compliance risk that you had weeks to address.
How Pay Cat Can Help
Pay Cat is payroll software built specifically for SCHADS Award compliance. We track every update to the award, we know how SCHADS allowances and loadings interact with super obligations, and when our clients need support, they talk to real people who know their setup.
If you want support reviewing your payroll ahead of Payday Super, our team is here to help you work through it properly.