by Optimum
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by Optimum
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Your EOFY HR Checklist
What every Australian employer must complete before 30 June 2026
Every year, EOFY arrives faster than employers expect. This year, the stakes are higher than usual. Wage theft became a criminal offence on 1 January 2025. The ATO and Fair Work have launched a joint crackdown on sham contracting. And the most significant superannuation reform in decades, Payday Super, takes effect on 1 July 2026.
There are six things every employer should complete before 30 June. Here is what they are, and why they matter.
01 SALARY REVIEWS
Review Salaries and Get Variation Letters Out Before 30 June
EOFY is the natural moment for salary reviews, but compliance with legal obligations must come first. Salary decisions need to be made, documented, and communicated before the new financial year begins, not scrambled together in the first week of July.
What to do:
Identify every employee due for a review and set your increase budget. The key compliance step is ensuring that every annualised salary continues to absorb the applicable award rate, including penalty rates, loadings, and allowances, after any adjustment. Many businesses miss this and inadvertently create underpayment exposure.
All remuneration decisions must be supported by documented performance outcomes. Variation letters confirming any changes should be prepared and issued before 30 June to avoid administrative delays and payroll risk in the new financial year.
02 ANNUALISED SALARY RECONCILIATION
Reconcile Annualised Salaries Against Award Entitlements
If you pay employees on annualised salaries under a modern award, you are legally required to conduct a reconciliation at least once every twelve months. This involves comparing what each employee was actually paid against what they would have earned under the award, including overtime, penalty rates, and allowances.
What to do:
Identify every employee on an annualised salary arrangement and run the reconciliation now. EOFY is the natural point to do this, it aligns with the financial year and creates a consistent annual compliance cycle.
If the reconciliation identifies a shortfall, it must be rectified in the next full pay cycle. Given that wage theft is now a criminal offence, finding and fixing discrepancies proactively, before a complaint or audit, is essential. You must also ensure all annualised salary arrangements are documented in writing, specifying the applicable award classification, agreed salary, and the outer-limit hours the salary is intended to cover. Records must be retained for a minimum of seven years under the Fair Work Act.
03 WORKFORCE PLANNING & RESTRUCTURES
Plan Any Restructures Now, Consultation Is Not Optional
EOFY is also a critical point to assess workforce sustainability and key person risk. Succession planning, capability gap analysis, and decisions about organisational design should all happen before June, not after.
If organisational change is being considered, including restructures, role eliminations, or productivity-driven redesign, the planning must begin now. Most modern awards and enterprise agreements require employers to undertake genuine consultation with affected employees before any decision is finalised.
What to do:
Identify critical roles and assess internal succession options. Evaluate capability gaps across the leadership team. Align workforce planning with any automation, AI adoption, or cost reduction initiatives under consideration. If a restructure is on the table, get legal and HR advice now, the Closing Loopholes Act 2024 has raised the stakes on procedural compliance significantly.
04 WGEA REPORTING
WGEA Report Deadline: 31 May. Data Integrity Is Now a Public Matter
For employers with 100 or more employees, Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) reporting is mandatory. The annual submission window runs from 1 April to 31 May. This is not a back-office compliance exercise anymore, reported gender pay gaps are now publicly disclosed and subject to external scrutiny.
Non-compliance carries both regulatory and commercial consequences, including public identification of reporting failures, reputational damage, and potential ineligibility for government contracts and procurement opportunities.
What to do:
Conduct an internal gender pay gap analysis before submitting. Validate data accuracy across gender pay gap reporting, workforce composition, and employee movement data, including promotions and exits. Identify any discrepancies and take corrective action before the submission is lodged. Aligning salary review outcomes with gender equity objectives is increasingly expected as part of broader governance and accountability frameworks.
05 PARENTAL LEAVE
Government Paid Parental Leave Extends to 26 Weeks on 1 July 2026
The Government’s Paid Parental Leave scheme expands to 26 weeks on 1 July 2026, up from 20 weeks, completing the phased move to a full six-month entitlement. The scheme is structured as a shared entitlement between parents, with designated portions reserved for each parent to encourage more balanced uptake. Payments remain at the national minimum wage.
The workforce planning implication is straightforward: longer periods of employee absence will require more structured backfill arrangements, particularly in critical or specialist roles. This change needs to be integrated into succession planning and operational continuity planning, not treated as a one-off HR policy update.
What to do:
Update your parental leave policies to reflect the new 26-week entitlement. Identify roles where extended leave creates genuine operational risk and build backfill or cross-training plans where needed. Bring parental leave planning into your broader workforce strategy rather than managing it case by case.
06 PAYDAY SUPER
Payday Super: The Biggest Super Reform in Decades Lands 1 July 2026
From 1 July 2026, employers will be required to pay superannuation contributions within seven days of each pay run. This replaces the existing quarterly payment framework and represents the most significant shift in superannuation compliance in a generation.
What to do, and do it now:
Audit your payroll software. Many older systems are configured for quarterly superannuation only and cannot process contributions with each pay run. Contact your payroll vendor immediately if you are unsure, this is not something to discover in July.
Model the cash flow impact. Moving from quarterly to fortnightly or weekly super payments is a material change to working capital requirements for many businesses. Run the numbers now and adjust your reserves accordingly.
Verify the 12% rate is applied correctly across all eligible earnings. Any system still applying the previous 11.5% rate is already generating shortfalls, each of which is subject to penalty.
Review salary packaging arrangements. Salary sacrifice contributions do not reduce the employer’s base SGC obligation under the new rules in most circumstances. Confirm compliance for all affected employees before the new regime begins.
The Bottom Line
This year’s EOFY HR obligations are more complex, and carry heavier consequences, than in previous years. Wage theft is criminal. Super compliance penalties accrue daily. Gender pay gaps are published. Restructure consultation requirements are enforced.
The employers who get through EOFY cleanly are the ones who start in April. If any of the six areas above need attention in your business, the time to act is now.
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