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Report

2025 Deel Australian Payroll Report

Global payroll

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Australia’s payroll crossroads: Under pressure, ready for change

In 2025, payroll in Australia is reaching a critical inflection point. Rising living costs are squeezing employees harder than ever, while payroll professionals are battling outdated systems, mounting compliance burdens, and growing burnout.

At the same time, technological disruption—from AI to cloud platforms—is accelerating rapidly, promising both relief and reinvention.

To understand this turning point, Deel surveyed over 1,000 employees and 500+ payroll decision-makers across Australia. The result is a first-of-its-kind report that reveals the untold story of Australian payroll management: its mounting challenges, hidden innovations, and the bold transformation already underway.

Report overview

  • Executive summary
  • Australian snapshot
  • Stressed payroll, squeezed employees
  • Payroll under pressure
  • Making payroll people stay
  • Technology: Blessing and curse
  • Compliance concerns
  • Getting it right – the accuracy challenge
  • AI in payroll
  • Pay it forward: Payroll 2030 – technology and flexibility
  • Conclusion
  • Methodology

Deel’s whitepaper does more than identify problems; it highlights practical ways businesses can future-proof their payroll operations by aligning practices with current trends and future needs.

— Tracy Angwin,

Director of the Australian Payroll Association

Key findings

  • Multi-country payroll is the norm: Nearly 6 out of 10 (58%) Australian payroll teams are handling payroll in multiple countries, with 19% of teams operating in six or more countries

  • Outdated payroll is blocking progress: 34% of payroll professionals report that their companies have not made payroll technology investments in the last year, and half of the respondents rely on outdated integration methods, like manual data entry

  • Adapting to new Australian payroll legislation: 42% of businesses have adopted new audit-ready tools in response to the wage theft legislation in Australia. However, 51% of payroll professionals are not fully confident in their preparedness for the PayDay Super initiative

  • Balancing AI-driven payroll with concerns: Almost half of the respondents (47%) are using AI in payroll functions, and another 40% are considering it. But there’s still scepticism, with nine out of ten (86%) citing concerns about AI’s reliability and accuracy

  • Low accuracy and compliance are top challenges: Less than half (49%) of Australian payroll teams are very confident in their payroll compliance resources, and only 35% of businesses report their payroll is accurate every time

How to use this data

  • Gain deep local insights backed by experts: Access exclusive research that reflects the real trends and challenges in Australian payroll, not just global averages

  • Get actionable strategies to stay ahead: Learn how using scalable, compliant, and integrated payroll technology in Australia can help you simplify global expansion and meet evolving employee expectations

  • Make data-driven decisions: Use up-to-date benchmarks and rich data points to plan your payroll strategy, evaluate vendors, and uncover opportunities to reduce risk and improve accuracy

Download the full payroll report

These findings only scratch the surface. By downloading the full report, you’ll gain deeper insights into:

  • How evolving legislation like the Wage Theft Act and PayDay Super are reshaping Australian payroll compliance in 2025
  • The real impact of payroll accuracy challenges on employee satisfaction and business risk
  • Why payroll teams face burnout and staffing shortages, and how to retain top talent
  • The role of AI in HR and payroll, and how adopting technology transforms operations
  • How generational shifts are driving demand for pay flexibility and financial wellness solutions

Download the report now for the data and strategies you need to prepare for the future of payroll in Australia.

FAQs

From 1 January 2025, it became a criminal offence in Australia for an employer to intentionally underpay an employee’s wages or entitlements, such as wages, paid leave, or superannuation. This law does not apply to honest mistakes, only to deliberate actions.

  • Applies to both individuals and companies
  • Covers any underpayments made intentionally after the law comes into effect (even if the behaviour began earlier)
  • Penalties can include fines, imprisonment, or both
  • Investigations will be handled by the Fair Work Ombudsman and referred to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions or Australian Federal Police when appropriate

Certain entitlements (like long service leave or jury duty leave) are exempt. Small businesses can avoid prosecution if they follow the Voluntary Small Business Wage Compliance Code. Employers can also enter into cooperation agreements to avoid criminal referral by self-reporting and cooperating.

This law is part of broader changes in Australian payroll regulations to close loopholes in workplace laws, protect employees from underpayment, and hold employers more accountable for Australian payroll compliance.

PayDay Super is a new legislative requirement that will mandate employers in Australia to pay employees’ superannuation entitlements at the same time as their regular wages, rather than quarterly, as was previously the norm.

The changes are set to take effect from July 1st, 2026. Employers must make and report Superannuation Guarantee (SG) contributions each pay cycle—whether weekly, fortnightly, or monthly—rather than the current quarterly system. Employers will need to update payroll systems to ensure PayDay Super compliance, and late payments will attract penalties under the new SG charge rules.

The reform is designed to:

  • Reduce superannuation compliance risks and "superannuation theft" (unpaid super), which currently costs millions of workers billions of dollars each year
  • Improve retirement outcomes by ensuring more regular contributions, allowing workers to benefit from compound interest and have better oversight of their super balances
  • Make it harder for employers to delay or avoid paying superannuation

Outsourcing payroll in Australia involves hiring a third-party provider to manage employee payments, tax compliance, and contributions in line with local regulations and requirements.

If you're an Australian business looking to scale internationally, managing payroll across multiple jurisdictions can be complex. Deel Global Payroll offers a fully-managed solution to run compliant payroll for your overseas entities—alongside your local operations—on a single, unified platform.

Plus, Deel’s real-time payroll feature includes instant gross-to-net calculations for faster, more accurate payroll processing.

As an all-in-one payroll and HR platform for global teams, Deel enables you to manage payroll, hire workers with Deel EOR or Deel Contractor, manage worker performance and planning, automate IT operations, and more—all without switching platforms.

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