Employers should align the payment of employee super with salary payments instead of making quarterly super payments as is currently required, the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) has said.
Aligning employee super payments with their pay cycle recognised that super was deferred wages and should be treated in the same way as salary, AIST said.
"It should be recognised that all employees need the security of having their super paid at the same time as their wages - be it monthly or fortnightly," AIST chief executive Fiona Reynolds said.
The current gap between payments and wages meant significant debts could accrue before arrears were detected and investigated, Reynolds said.
She hoped employers would start paying super at the same interval as the payment of wages, when they move to the electronic payment of superannuation guarantee (SG) money as recommended under the Cooper review's SuperStream proposals.
AIST also called on the government to extend its MySuper criteria to include mandatory arrears collection.
"At the moment, it is only really a handful of funds that identify and attempt to remedy compliance issues," Reynolds said.
"All super fund members would benefit from the added protection of knowing that their fund is also on the lookout for any anomalies in their super payments," she said.
AIST made the calls in reaction to the public release of a report by the Australian inspector general of taxation Ali Noroozi on the review into the Australian Taxation Office's (ATO) administration of the SG charge.
In the report, Noroozi said at least $600 million in unpaid super was still outstanding.
He made a series of recommendations to the government, including an expansion of the ATO's prosecution powers and auditing activities.
The government will shortly commence consultations with the industry, employer representatives and unions about the implementation of the recommendations.
