Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE) Explained

Ordinary time earnings are generally what your employees earn for their ordinary hours of work, including:

• over-award payments
• certain bonuses
• commissions
• shift-loading
• certain allowances.
  

*Cessation (Termination) payments for unused Personal (Sick), Annual or Long Service Leave are excluded from OTE.

For more information on which Pay Types, Allowances are Deductions are considered Ordinary time earnings (OTE) for Superannuation, please read Checklist: Salary or wages and ordinary time earnings

Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE) is used to calculate the minimum Employer SG contribution that you are required to pay to your Employees Superannuation Fund of choice. This helps ensure all employees who are eligible for super are treated the same way for Super Guarantee purposes. 

1. An ‘employee’s ordinary hours of work’ are the hours specified as their ordinary hours of work under the relevant award or agreement, or under the combination of documents, that governs the employee’s conditions of employment.
2. If the ordinary hours of work are not specified in a relevant award or agreement, the ‘ordinary hours of work’ are the normal, regular, usual or customary hours worked by the employee, as determined by all the circumstances of the case. This is not necessarily the minimum or the maximum number of hours worked or required to be worked.
3. Where it is not possible or practicable to determine the normal, regular, usual or customary hours of work of an employee, the actual hours worked by the employee are taken to be their ordinary hours of work.