Aside from the wage and super increases, as we come into the new financial year there are other changes and to-do tasks that employers need to be aware of.
1. Updated Pay Guides and Award Wage Increase
Every year Fair Work produce modern award pay guides that list the updated weekly and hourly rates and allowances that incorporate the national minimum wage increase. Fair Work have now released the new pay guides. The increase Award wages apply from the first full pay period that starts on or after 1 July 2024.
Follow this link and then search for the pay guide for the relevant Award from the list provided. Fair Work Modern Award Pay Guides
What you need to do.
We encourage you to find the updated pay guide for your Award and make sure that you update the wage and allowance rates for each of your employees in order to have the increases ready to go on the first full pay period that starts on or after 1 July 2024.
2. Reminder – Superannuation increase
Superannuation will increase from 11% to 11.5% from the first pay period that occurs in July – it doesn’t need to be a full pay period occurring in July like the pay increase above.
3. High Income Threshold Increase
The high income threshold acts as a limit to an employee’s eligibility to be protected from unfair dismissal under the terms of the Fair Work Act 2009.
If an employee is not covered by a modern award, or if an enterprise agreement does not apply to them, they must have an annual rate of earnings of less than the high income threshold to be able to lodge a claim for unfair dismissal.
The high income threshold is adjusted by Fair Work on 1 July each year. The amount of the high income threshold from 1 July 2024 is increased to $175,000 per annum.
It’s important to note that this amount is based on the employee’s earnings. Earnings do not include the following:
• Payments which cannot be determined in advance such as:
- Commissions
- Incentive-based payments and bonuses, or
- Overtime (except guaranteed overtime);
• Reimbursements (such as per diem payments), and
• Compulsory contributions to a superannuation fund (superannuation guarantee).
4. Reminder – Check your Annualised Salary/Above Award provisions.
If you have Award-based employees under an annualised salary then you will need to review your annualised salary arrangements to make sure that your forecasting around the inclusions in the annualised rate and the outer limits of overtime that could be required without needing payment are still accurate. If the forecasting is not the same based on the new rates, you will need to issue an updated Annualised Salary Schedule to these employees.
If you have an employee that has an above-award pay rate, it is important for you to check that your pay rates are still above the new Award minimum rates.
As usual, we encourage you to get in touch should you have any questions/concerns regarding this article or if you need support or clarification as to how you best implement/manage these changes with your team.