The Australian Superannuation Guarantee – the proportion
of wages that employers must contribute to their workers'
retirement savings – will increase from 9.5% to 10% on 1 July
2021.
How will this affect Employer Sponsored Employees?
The question has been raised if the extra 0.5% can be taken from
the salaries of sponsored workers, as can be done with some
Australian workers covered by specific awards or agreements.
This appears to be in conflict with the requirements of approved
employer sponsored visas, where the sponsor has agreed to pay a
specific Annual Market Salary Rate (AMSR) and guaranteed
earnings.
The Migration Institute of
Australia (MIA) believes it would be a breach of the visa rules
for employers to extract the 0.5% from an sponsored workers salary,
which specifies that contributions to a superannuation fund cannot
be included in an employees' earnings.
