Your superable salary is your annual base salary, plus certain allowances and payments.
The superannuation salary includes allowances that are generally paid to an employee while on annual leave or long service leave, plus loading for shift work.
Some allowances and payments are specifically excluded, including overtime, bonuses, expenses and travelling allowances.
SASS also excludes relieving or higher duties allowances from your superable salary, except where you have been paid the allowance or you expect to be paid the allowance for a continuous period of one year.
Why is my superable salary important?
Your superable salary is very important because it influences the amount of personal contributions you pay to SASS and the benefits you receive from the scheme – especially your employer-financed benefits.
Your employer-financed benefits are calculated using final salary or final average salary, age and mode of exit. Your:
- final salary is the amount of salary (for superannuation purposes), paid or payable on your exit date.
- final average salary is the average of your salaries (for superannuation purposes), paid on your exit date and the two preceding annual review days (31 December).
Each of the SASS fact sheets that describe benefit payments specify which salary figure is used to calculate a specific benefit.
For further information, please refer to SASS Fact Sheet 6: Salary for superannuation purposes.