Give young Australians a super start to work
Pay super to all under 18-year-olds
Hundreds of thousands of teenage workers are facing discrimination at the very start of their working career –denied super contributions solely because of their age.
That’s because under-18 workers are only entitled to super contributions if they work more than 30 hours per week for the same employer.
This 90s era law costs about 375,000 workers an average of $885 each in super contributions in a year. In total under-18 workers miss out on $330 million a year.
As teen workers still have decades left in the workforce, missing out on these contributions will cost them a lot in lost compound earnings. In fact, Industry Super Australia modelling suggest it could be as much as $10,200 in today’s dollars for the average under-18- year-old worker by the time they retire at 67.
The 30-hour threshold was introduced because it was feared that low balances would be eroded through fees and insurance costs. These concerns have been addressed with the introduction of fee caps and bans on automatic insurance for workers under-25 who are not employed in hazardous occupations.
Abolishing the 30-hour threshold also removes an administrative burden for employers, who must monitor the hours of younger workers – which is a complex task in a large casual workforce.