More than $1.1 billion in unpaid superannuation has been returned to Australian workers over the past year, but millions of Australians may still be missing money they are legally owed.
New figures from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) show that the money was returned to the super accounts of more than 900,000 Australians.
The ATO also collected more than $1.1 billion in Super Guarantee Charge liabilities, up from $795 million in the previous financial year.
The enforcement action is encouraging, but the scale of unpaid super remains in the billions of dollars a year, Super Members Council CEO Misha Schubert said.
"Returning more than $1 billion in unpaid super to Australians is welcome progress. This is money owed to working Australians that is finally being paid to them," Schubert said.
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"With workers still losing an estimated $6.3 billion in unpaid super a year, there is much more work to do. The onus should not be on everyday Australians to chase the super they are legally owed."
The council estimates that 3.4 million Australians were underpaid $6.3 billion in superannuation during 2023-24, with affected workers missing out on an average of about $1,850 each.
Despite the ATO recovering more than $1.1 billion, the council's analysis suggests it recovers only one in every six dollars of unpaid super and returns it to workers.
The financial impact can extend well beyond the initial missed payments, with lost investment returns potentially leaving some workers more than $30,000 worse off by retirement.
The council said introducing payday super could help by requiring employers to pay superannuation at the same time as wages.
More than 70 per cent of Australians surveyed in a recent poll agreed the reform would help them monitor whether their employer was paying super correctly.
More than half said they would check their super more regularly.
The changes are also expected to give the ATO more timely information to identify potential underpayments and intervene before debts accumulate.
The council is calling for stronger enforcement, including greater use of data matching, proactive investigations, and public targets to recover unpaid super.
It also wants tougher action against employers who deliberately or repeatedly fail to pay super, and to extend the Fair Entitlements Guarantee to cover unpaid super when businesses become insolvent.
Schubert said the focus should now be on identifying unpaid super earlier and ensuring workers receive the money they are owed.
"Payday super is a game changer because it gives workers more visibility and gives the ATO better information to spot missed payments earlier.
"The task now is to make full use of those tools to detect unpaid super early, recover it quickly, and deter it from happening in the first place."
