From 1 July 2026, Qualifying Earnings (QE) is the earnings that superannuation should be based on and will be reported through STP Reporting. Your QE setup is based on the ATO's definition of QE. You flag a component as QE on the Pay Component, Addition, Deduction and Leave Reason.
The setup of QE can be different to the components selected in your Employer Contribution. Your Employer Contribution at a minimum must include all QE components but could include additional components, additions, deductions or leave reasons if specified by an Award, EBA or company policy.
The ATO outlines that QE includes:
Components that are considered OTE, this is payments ordinary hours of work and can include certain types of:
paid leave
allowances
bonuses
lump sum payments
All commissions, including commissions for work done outside of ordinary hours
Salary sacrificed to superannuation for amounts that would otherwise be qualifying earnings. This was the same before Payday Super.
We have created a summary document based on the ATO's documentation to assist in this, Super Guarantee Treatment for Payday Super.
For more information, see the ATO's what payments are qualifying earnings.
Super Salary Sacrifice and Qualifying Earnings
In MicrOpay, deductions are treated as negative values. If you tick Qualifying Earnings (QE), then the deduction will reduce the QE and the salary that was sacrificed will be excluded (or deducted) from QE.
For example, if an employee receives Normal of $1,000 and has a $100 deduction and QE is not ticked, then the QE value would be $1,000, i.e. it is included. If QE is ticked, QE would show $900.00 and exclude the salary sacrifice.
The ATO specifies that amounts sacrificed to superannuation should be included in qualifying earnings, therefore, you wouldn't tick Qualifying Earnings (QE). This may be different for salary sacrifices for other purposes, e.g. Novated Lease etc.
RDO and Qualifying Earnings
The ATO specifies that Rostered days off (taken and paid at ordinary rates) are Qualifying Earnings, therefore, you should tick Qualifying Earnings for both RDO Deduct and RDOPay.
Whilst you can't select RDO Deduct and RDO Pay as components in your employer contribution, they are included in the calculation of superannuation when you have Normal Hours select.
This means that the QE and Superannuation are based on the number of hours paid in the period.