91ºÚÁÏ

Your superable salary, is very important because it’s used in the calculation of your employer financed-benefit and your basic benefit. It’s a particularly important part of your plan for retirement and determines your personal contributions.Ìý

It’s important to understand what is included in the superable salary reported by your employer and how your work arrangements may impact the salary reported.Ìý Ìý

Your superable salary is reported by your employer to State Super at 31 December each year while you are a contributing member and on your exit from employment.

Your superable salary may be different to your contract salary or your assessable income for tax purposes. Your superable salary includes:
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• Your base salary
• It may also include a loading based on a formula for shift allowances provided you have worked 105 shifts or more in a full calendar year. Shifts are based on 8-hour shifts and are adjusted to give an equivalent value of you work longer shifts.
• Other superable allowances. Any allowance that’s paid on an annual basis and is included in your salary if you are on leave, is generally superable. The allowances are generally for things such as additional qualifications and job specific allowances.
• Relieving or higher duties allowances if they are expected to or have been paid for a continuous period of 1 year.
• Any workers compensation payments if they are less than or equal to your normal salary subject to reporting requirements being met.
  

What’s excluded from your superable salary

• overtime
• bonuses
• expenses
• travel allowances.
  

Calculating your benefit at retirement

At retirement your employer-financed benefit and your basic benefit are calculated, based on your final average salary.

The final average salary is calculated using:

• your superable salary on the day you retire, and
• the superable salary reported by your employer as at 31 December for the two previous years.

These three amounts added together and divided by three become your final average salary.

Example:

If you retire on 5 May 2025 then your final average salary would be calculated as:

Carefully planning your employment arrangement to maximise your final average salary is a way to maximise your SASS benefit. For example, planning to retire after your annual salary review may help maximise your employer financed-benefit and basic benefit. Your 91ºÚÁÏ financial planner can help you plan for this.

Superable salary and personal leave

Purchased leave is an arrangement between you and your employer to purchase extra days or weeks of leave and deducting the cost of these days from your salary, spreading them out over the year in equal instalments. Purchased leave reduces your superable salary, and therefore if you exit the scheme in the time frame in which the reduced salary would be used to calculate your benefit, your benefit be reduced. This could be on death, invalidity, redundancy, or retirement.

Leave without pay for short periods is often a better option than Purchased Leave as it doesn’t impact your superable salary. Although it’s worth noting that your basic benefit stops accruing from the 5th day.

Long service leave can be taken at double pay, half pay or single pay. Whichever way it is taken it is all treated as if it was taken at the single pay rate. The full-time superable salary is reported by your employer to State Super, and your contributions to SASS continue at the full-time rate, even if the leave is taken at half pay.Ìý

How working part-time impacts your SASS benefit points

If you work part-time, your superable salary continues to be reported as the full-time equivalent salary. However, your employer will allocate you a pro-rata number of points for that period. For example, if you are working part-time at 50% of full-time equivalent hours, then your employer will only make available a maximum of 3 benefit points for you to accrue in that year, rather than the usual 6 benefit points for a full-time employee. This means it will take longer than 30 years’ service to accrue 180 points. Your basic benefit will also accrue in the ratio of your part time workload.

Changes in your working arrangements and how it impacts on your SASS benefit

In a short video, we discuss why and how changes to your work arrangement such as taking leave, working part time and facing redundancy impact your SASS benefit. We highlight how SASS is intricately linked to a SASS members employment arrangement and the importance of making informed decisions when making changes to a work situation.

If you would like to book an appointment with an 91ºÚÁÏ financial planner¹ call us on 1800 841 633.

¹ Financial planning services are provided by our financial planning business, Aware Financial Services Australia Limited, ABN 86 003 742 756 AFSL No. 238430.