The rule you can’t miss when it comes to Australian Payslip Checklist 2026
Every employee must get a payslip within one working day of payday, paper or electronic, even if they’re on leave. Electronic payslips are fine; they just need the same content as paper. Keep them simple, printable, and written in plain English. That’s the baseline Fair Work expects.
What a compliant payslip actually shows
A lawful payslip isn’t a vibe; it’s a specific list. You must include:
- Employer and employee names, plus the employer’s ABN (if you have one).
- The pay period (start/end dates) and date of payment.
- Gross pay and net pay.
- If paid hourly: the ordinary hourly rate, hours at that rate, and the total amount at that rate.
- Any loadings, allowances, bonuses, incentive payments, penalty rates or other entitlements that can be separated from ordinary hourly pay, call them out clearly.
- Deductions: amount and details of each deduction, and the name (or name and number) of the fund/account the deduction went to.
- Superannuation contributions: the amount contributed (or intended to be contributed) for the period, and the name (or name and number) of the fund.
- On a final pay: the pay rate that applied on the last day of employment.
Those items are straight from the regulator, copy them into your template and stop guessing.
A practical carve-out for new starters
If you’re issuing a payslip within 14 days of a new employee’s first payday and you don’t yet have their chosen or stapled super fund details, you don’t have to show the fund name/number on that first slip. Add it once you have the details.
What not to put on a payslip (domestic violence leave)
Paid family and domestic violence leave is handled deliberately. You must not label it on a payslip, ever. Record the time as ordinary hours or another kind of payment (e.g., allowance, overtime) so the slip looks like it would have if leave wasn’t taken. If the employee asks, you can display it as another leave type. This is about safety, not secrecy.
Leave balances: helpful, not mandatory
Showing annual, personal, or long-service leave balances is best practice, but not a legal requirement. You must tell an employee their leave balance if they ask. Decide your stance, document it, and be consistent.
Penalties if you miss the mark
Fair Work can issue infringement notices if payslips are late or missing required fields, and can seek penalties in court for serious cases. The easy prevention: build the rule into your payroll system so compliant slips go out automatically within one working day.
How payslips and STP fit together
Payslips are for employees; STP is your data feed to government. They’re separate obligations that should tell the same story. Employees can see year-to-date tax and super in ATO online services thanks to STP, but that doesn’t replace the payslip requirement. Keep your STP Phase-2 mapping (disaggregated earnings and allowance types) aligned with what the employee sees on their slip, same labels, same amounts, so you don’t create avoidable queries.
Hourly vs salary: make it obvious
If someone is hourly, your slip must show the ordinary hourly rate, hours worked at that rate, and the dollar total at that rate. If someone is salaried, you don’t need to list an hourly rate; focus on the period covered, gross/net, itemised extras (allowances/penalties/bonuses), deductions, and super details. If pay varies (overtime, penalties), call those out as separate lines, don’t hide them inside “gross.”
Allowances, penalties, and loadings: name them
Fair Work expects anything separable from ordinary time to be identified on the slip (casual loading, overtime meal allowance, travel allowance, penalty rates, etc.). Name each item and show the amount. This also helps your STP file reconcile without drama because you’re using the same categories in both places.
Deductions: no black boxes
If you deduct anything, salary sacrifice to super, social club, overpayment recovery, show the amount and details. Where money is sent to a fund or account, list the name (or name and number) of that destination. Ambiguity here is a compliance risk and a trust killer.
Super on the payslip: show what’s landing
Each period’s payslip must show the super contribution amount you made or intend to make for that period, and the fund name (or name and number). With SG now 12%, it’s worth sanity-checking the contribution lines against your payroll setup, errors here create loud problems later.
Records: keep the trail for seven years
Separate from payslips, you must keep proper employee records (time worked, wages paid, leave, super, etc.) for seven years. Store payslips and the underlying time/pay records together so you can prove what happened without hunting through inboxes.
Termination pays: one extra detail
On final pay, include the rate that applied on the last day of employment. Keep the rest of your usual structure (gross/net, allowances, deductions, super) and attach the termination calculation in your system notes so you can explain it later in two minutes, not an afternoon.
How to lock this in (so it’s boring on purpose)
Build a single payslip template that mirrors Fair Work’s list, no custom formats by manager or site. In payroll, freeze the field order and labels so “Travel allowance” or “Overtime, Sat” always reads the same on slips and in your STP mapping. Set your software to auto-email payslips on payday with a one-working-day fallback for manual runs. Review a sample of slips once a month: do they include every required field, show itemised extras, and match the STP preview? This is a five-minute check that prevents audit pain.
Accessibility and privacy: don’t trip over easy stuff
If you issue digital slips, make sure employees can access and print them privately (not a shared terminal) and that personal data isn’t exposed to the wrong person. It’s basic hygiene and it’s on Fair Work’s “tips” list for a reason.
The 60-second self-audit
Open your latest payslip and ask:
- Does it show both names (employer/employee) and the ABN (if applicable)?
- Are pay period, pay date, gross, and net all there?
- Are allowances/penalties/loadings/bonuses named and separated?
- If hourly, are rate, hours, and totals shown per rate?
- Are deductions fully described with the destination fund/account named?
- Does it list super amount (or intended amount) and the fund?
If any answer is “no,” fix the template, not just that one slip. That’s the difference between a quiet quarter and a noisy one.
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Bottom line : Conclusion
The payslip is small, but it carries a lot: it’s a legal requirement with a one-day deadline, a trust signal for your people, and a mirror you can use to keep your STP data honest. Build the required fields into your template, keep your labels consistent with your STP mapping, and audit it monthly. Do that and payslips stop being a risk, and start being proof that your payroll is run like a proper operation.