Set yourself up for comfortable retirement
Superannuation is a long-term savings structure to provide you with an income when you retire.
For most people, superannuation contributions come from their employer. When you work, your employer must pay for the 2023/24 financial year, a minimum of 11% of your salary into a super account. This is the government’s current “superannuation guarantee (SG)” rate.
Other contributions
Depending on your situation, you can also receive contributions from other sources:
How super works
Most people can choose the super fund for their employer's super contributions. However, some people who are covered by industrial agreements and members of defined benefit funds don't have this choice.
Your super contributions will go into the default MySuper investment option within the super fund unless you nominate a different option. Each super fund has a range of investment options, with different levels of risk and potential investment returns. Each investment option will be made up of one or a combination of asset classes (such as bonds, cash, property, shares).
When you change jobs
It is important to remember to take your super fund with you when you change jobs. When you join a new company, your employer will provide you with Standard Choice of Super form. With this form, you can provide details of your current super fund so that your new employer can make contributions into it.
REI Super members
If you are a REI Super member and changing jobs, complete this document and hand it to your new employer:
If you don’t choose a super fund
If you commence work from 1 November 2021, your employer will need to request details of a ‘stapled super fund’ from the ATO if you don’t choose a super fund. A stapled super fund is an existing super account which is linked, or ‘stapled’, to an existing individual employee so that it follows them as they change jobs.
This change aims to reduce super account fees by stopping unintended super accounts from being opened every time you start a new job.
If you have one existing eligible super account, this will be notified to your employer as the stapled super fund account for your contributions.