Super increase not business levy, factored into wages

22/03/2012 - Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten insists a lift in the superannuation guarantee is not a tax on employers.

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He also rejects claims workers will have to pay for increased super contributions through a reduction in pay.

Business has complained that an increase from 9 to 12 per cent will cost employers $20 billion a year.

Shorten says the money will come from "deferred wage increases" worked out between employers and employees during wage negotiations.

"This is not a tax on business," he told ABC Television on Thursday.

The increase would be phased in through "reasonable instalments" over seven years.

"This means employees and employers have time to adjust and take the increase into account in future wage negotiations," he wrote in The Australian.

Shorten rejected as "another fallacy" claims that increasing superannuation meant a reduction in wages.

The truth was that superannuation was part of an employee's total remuneration.

"So, an increase in super means an increase in remuneration or wages by another name."

Source: AAP NewsWire

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Have your say...

pat | 22/03/2012 10:00 1

Off course it's a tax on business, ya fool. It always has been. The entire superannuation levy has been a shift of government pension responsibilty to business, because they spend our taxes indiscriminately. There is no other way to put it, and all the elaborate rhetoric from successive sides of the political spectrum cannot hide their lack of fiscal responsibility over the years, and the blatant money grab and blame game that they foist on Australian business. And for Shorten to then say that business can negotiate it out during employee wage talks is a real indicator of how far the Labour party has moved from the voter base it supposedly represents. Because we all know where those employer and employee negotiations are going to end up dont we. The employees will carry the can AGAIN. And then the government can blame employers. Ya wonder why people are fed up with politicians.

goldie | 22/03/2012 11:15 2

I thought one of the benefits of implementing a mining tax was that some of the revenue from this tax would fund the increase in the superannuation guarantee? It would come as no surprise if Juliar has done what she does best, tell lies and she will no doubt tell us we have misunderstood what she said. I am an advocate for a mining tax but I fear the bounty from it will be squandered as this government could not manage a lemonade stand.

Jim | 22/03/2012 13:21 3

My initial thoughts were that this increase in the super levy would be offset by a reduction in tax on small business. Unfortunately this did not appear in the rest of the article. Given this I agree it is another "tax on business" that the majority of small businesses cannot afford to carry. The politicians must be living on another planet if they are not aware of this. You'd think the group (small business)that makes up more than half the employment in the country would receive fair consideration. Again they have failed in this basic duty.

dave d | 22/03/2012 13:22 4

Let me get this right !! The increase in Super you will have to wait until you are retired to collect and the money & cost of living increases you receive in your pay packet you will also have to wait for as it is going toward your retirement Super - How can anybody in their right mind say that this is in the interest of the people they proport to represent - they are treating everyone like idiots - enough is enough !!!

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