Australian payslips: required content and the one-working-day rule
An Australian employer must give each employee a pay slip within one working day of paying them for work. That duty sits in section 536 of the Fair Work Act 2009, and regulation 3.46 of the Fair Work Regulations 2009 lists what the slip must show. At minimum it names the employer and the employee, the pay period, the payment date, the gross and net amounts, and each deduction with the fund or account it went to. The employer's ABN must also appear where the employer has one. The slip can be electronic or hard copy, and the deadline applies even when the employee is on leave. To check your own slips against this list, use the free calculator on this page.
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In short
- Section 536 of the Fair Work Act 2009 requires a pay slip within one working day of payment, and the deadline attaches to the payment, not the next pay cycle.
- Regulation 3.46 of the Fair Work Regulations 2009 sets the minimum content, including employer name and ABN, pay period, gross and net amounts and itemised deductions.
- Final pay on termination and casual pay both fall under the same deadline.
- The slip must never mention paid family and domestic violence leave.
- Automation can build and time the slip, but a person still checks the pay figures before release.
The rule and where it comes from
Section 536 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) requires an employer to give each of its employees a pay slip within one working day of paying an amount to that employee for work performed. The duty is a civil remedy provision, so a breach is enforced through civil proceedings. The section also says the slip must follow any form the regulations prescribe and must carry any information the regulations require. Those requirements sit in regulation 3.46 of the Fair Work Regulations 2009, and regulations 3.45 to 3.46 set out the form and content of the slip.
The Fair Work Ombudsman reads the rule the same way. Its guidance says employers must give all employees a pay slip within one working day of pay day, and that the slip can be given on paper or electronically, for example as a link sent by email. An electronic slip must carry the same information as a paper one. The Ombudsman also notes that the obligation holds even if the employee is on leave when the money is paid.
The Act also prohibits giving a pay slip that the employer knows is false or misleading. A slip can be technically complete and still breach that rule if the figures on it are wrong.
How the one-working-day deadline is worked out
The clock starts when the money is paid, not when the pay run is approved or when the pay period closes. Most payroll mistakes on this point come from treating the next pay cycle as the deadline. The steps below work for a weekly, fortnightly or monthly pay run.
- Record the date the payment was actually made to the employee's account or in cash. This is the trigger date.
- Find the next working day after that date. Skip weekends and any public holiday that applies where the employee works.
- Make sure the complete slip has been given to the employee by the end of that working day. A slip prepared on time but sent later still misses the deadline.
- Keep a copy of the slip and the date it was sent. Those records support the employer if the timing is ever questioned.
The rule covers each payment for work. That includes regular wages, a top-up payment and a final payment made when employment ends.
What the payslip must show
Regulation 3.46(1) of the Fair Work Regulations 2009 always requires the employer's name, the employee's name, the period the slip covers, the date the payment was made, the gross amount and the net amount. It also requires any separately identifiable bonus, loading, allowance, penalty rate or incentive payment to be itemised, and the employer's ABN, which has been required since 1 January 2010 where the employer has one. The table below maps each item to the rule that requires it.
| Item on the slip | When it is required | Where the rule sits |
|---|---|---|
| Employer's name and ABN (or address if no ABN) | Always. The ABN is required where the employer has one. | Reg 3.46(1)(a) and (h) |
| Employee's name | Always | Reg 3.46(1)(b) |
| Pay period and date of payment | Always | Reg 3.46(1)(c) and (d) |
| Gross and net amount | Always | Reg 3.46(1)(e) and (f) |
| Bonuses, loadings, allowances, penalty rates and other separate entitlements | Where any were paid | Reg 3.46(1)(g) |
| Each deduction and the fund or account it was paid into | Where any deduction was taken from gross pay | Reg 3.46(2) |
| Ordinary hourly rate, hours at that rate and amount paid at that rate | Where the employee is paid by the hour | Reg 3.46(3) |
| Annual rate of pay as at the latest date covered | Where the employee is paid an annual rate | Reg 3.46(4) |
| Superannuation contributions made or to be made, and the fund named | Where the employer must make contributions for the employee | Reg 3.46(5) |
The Ombudsman's pay slip guidance also asks for the date of the last day's pay rate when employment ends, and it notes that leave balances are best practice rather than a requirement. Leave balances must still be given to an employee who asks for them. Pay slips must never mention paid family and domestic violence leave, including leave taken or leave balances, so that leave needs its own records.
A worked example with real numbers
Take an employee paid a fixed salary every fortnight. The pay period runs from 23 October 2026 to 5 November 2026. Pay day is Friday 6 November 2026. The gross amount for the period is 2,400.00 dollars. The employee has tax withheld of 412.00 dollars, which is paid to the Australian Taxation Office, so the net amount is 1,988.00 dollars. The employer also makes a superannuation contribution for the period, which the slip shows as a separate line with the name of the fund. The figures in this example are illustrative. They are not a tax calculation.
The deadline is the next working day after payment. Friday 6 November 2026 is the payment date, so the slip must reach the employee by Monday 9 November 2026, assuming no public holiday falls on that Monday where the employee works. The slip has to show the employer's name and ABN, the employee's name, the period from 23 October to 5 November, the payment date, the gross 2,400.00 dollars, the net 1,988.00 dollars, the 412.00 dollars deduction with the account it was paid into, and the superannuation line with its fund. If the same employee had a 150.00 dollar performance bonus in that period, the bonus would need its own line rather than being folded into the salary figure.
Cases that change the answer
The one-working-day deadline does not change for most cases, but several things change what the slip must contain or when it is due.
Final pay on resignation or dismissal. The deadline still applies. A Federal Circuit Court decision in 2013, reported by the law firm Mondaq, held that an employer breached section 536 by giving a redundancy payment slip late, and the court rejected the argument that a payment linked to redundancy was outside the rule. Final pay runs outside the usual pay cycle, so the slip needs its own date. Employers should not assume the normal fortnightly slip covers it.
Casual and part-time staff. Casual employees are covered in the same way as full-time staff. Hourly-rate staff need the hourly rate, the hours at that rate and the amount paid at that rate. A casual loading that is part of the ordinary hourly rate can be shown as a note on the slip instead of a separate line, according to the Ombudsman's guidance.
New starters. An employer who must give a new employee a slip within 14 days of their first pay day can leave out the superannuation fund name in two situations. The first is when the employee has not chosen a fund. The second is when the employer has not been able to obtain the employee's stapled fund details from the Australian Taxation Office. The slip still needs the other items.
Electronic slips. A slip sent by email or made available through a payroll portal is valid if it carries the same information as a paper slip and reaches the employee by the deadline. The slip still needs to be in English, and the employer should make sure the employee can open and print it in private.
Limits. Regulation 3.46 sets the minimum content, not the layout. There is no cap on the number of items that may be added, but any extra item must be accurate. The rule does not decide which award rate, allowance or tax amount applies. Automation can build and send the slip, but the figures still come from the pay calculation that a person has checked.
Common mistakes
The most common error is treating the next pay run as the deadline. Employers who pay on the 15th of each month and send the slip with the next month's run are outside the rule. Another frequent mistake is leaving out the ABN. The ABN has been required on pay slips since 1 January 2010 where the employer has one, so a template that still shows only a company name is incomplete.
Deductions are often listed without the account they went to. A line that says superannuation or union fees without a fund or account name does not meet regulation 3.46(2). Lumping a bonus, allowance or penalty into one salary figure is also a mistake, because the regulation requires separately identifiable entitlements to be itemised. The Federal Circuit Court case mentioned above turned in part on a slip that described a payment as basic salary when it was not.
A quieter mistake is copying last period's slip and changing only the dates. If the rate, hours or deductions changed, the slip must reflect that. A slip that is correct in form but wrong in figures can breach section 536(3) even though it looks complete.
What to check with HR or a lawyer
Check the pay date for each pay run against the one-working-day deadline, including the pay runs that fall near public holidays. Confirm which fund each superannuation contribution goes to, and check whether a new starter's stapled fund details have been requested from the Australian Taxation Office. Ask the employer's payroll adviser which award, enterprise agreement or contract sets the rates and allowances that appear on the slip, because the slip has to show the amounts those instruments require.
Ask a lawyer or a registered workplace relations adviser if a dispute arises over a late slip, a missing item, or a final payment on termination. Anyone who is told that the pay slip will be changed or that pay or hours will be reduced should ask for the change in writing. In Australia, notice, consultation and redundancy rules can apply to a change of that kind, and the change should be agreed with the employee or checked with a lawyer before it takes effect.
How employers take the routine payroll paperwork off staff
Most of the payslip work is repeatable. The same fields come from the same pay run every time, and the deadline is a date that can be calculated in advance. AiStaffo builds AI workers that take over routine business work such as payroll records, reports and documents, and offers free tools for owners and finance teams doing that work today. An AI worker can be set to check each pay run for the regulation 3.46 fields, flag a missing ABN or fund name, and prepare the slip for release by the deadline. A person still approves the pay figures and decides on any exception. This explains the rule in general terms; it is not legal or tax advice for your case.
Sources
How AiStaffo would automate this
AiStaffo would connect to the pay run export or payroll system the business already uses and read each employee's pay period, payment date, gross, net, deductions and fund details. The AI worker would fill the regulation 3.46 fields, flag any missing employer ABN, deduction account or fund name, and prepare each slip as a PDF or secure electronic link ready for release. It would also calculate the one-working-day deadline from the payment date and show it on the payroll calendar. The owner or payroll lead still approves the pay figures, decides on exceptions such as final pay or a disputed allowance, and confirms the award rates before anything is sent. Book a free automation audit.
Questions people ask
How long does an Australian employer have to give a payslip?
Does a casual employee get a payslip too?
Can a payslip be sent by email?
What must a payslip show about superannuation?
Do I need to give a payslip for a final pay after resignation?
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