Payslip Generator (Australia)

What a pay slip must legally show

The mandatory content of an Australian pay slip is set out in regulation 3.46 of the Fair Work Regulations 2009, backed by sections 535–536 of the Fair Work Act 2009. A pay slip must be issued to each employee within one working day of being paid, even if the employee is away on leave, and it can be given electronically (for example as an emailed PDF) or on paper.

• The employer’s name and the employer’s Australian Business Number (ABN), if the employer has one.
• The employee’s name.
• The date of payment and the pay period it covers (start and end dates).
• The gross amount of pay and the net amount of pay.
• Any amount deducted, and for each deduction the name or number of the fund or account it was paid into.
• If paid at an hourly rate: the ordinary hourly rate, the number of hours worked at that rate, and the total dollar amount paid at that rate.
• If paid an annual salary: the salary rate as at the last day of the pay period.
• Any loadings, allowances, bonuses, incentive-based payments, penalty rates or other separately identifiable entitlements — showing the rate and the amount for each.
• Superannuation contributions: the amount of each contribution the employer is liable to make, and the name and/or number of the super fund it was (or will be) paid to. See Fair Work – pay slips for the full list.

How to create and read a payslip step by step

1. Enter the employer details: legal or trading name, ABN and (optionally) address. The ABN is a hard requirement under reg 3.46 and is the field generic tools most often miss.
2. Enter the employee’s name and, if you use one, an employee ID or payroll number.
3. Set the pay period start and end dates and the date of payment. Remember the pay slip must reach the employee within one working day of that payment date.
4. Add the earnings lines. For hourly staff, record the ordinary hourly rate, hours worked and total; for salaried staff, record the annual salary rate. Break out overtime, allowances, loadings and penalty rates on separate lines with their own rate and amount.
5. Add deductions. The main one is PAYG withholding (income tax); list any other deductions individually with the fund or account each was paid into.
6. Add the superannuation contribution: the dollar amount and the fund name or number. Check the current Superannuation Guarantee rate on ATO super for employers.
7. Review the totals — gross, total deductions, net and total super — then download the PDF and issue it to the employee.

Understanding each line on your payslip

Gross pay is the total you earned before anything is taken out — ordinary earnings plus overtime, allowances, loadings, penalty rates and any bonuses. This is the figure the rest of the pay slip works down from.

PAYG withholding is the income tax your employer withholds under the Pay As You Go system and remits to the Australian Taxation Office on your behalf. It is a deduction, not an employer cost, so it comes off your gross to help arrive at your net.

Net pay is what actually lands in your bank account: gross pay minus PAYG withholding and any other deductions. It is the number most people check first, but it is only correct if every line above it is right.

Superannuation is money your employer pays on top of your wages into your nominated super fund — it is not deducted from your gross pay. The pay slip must show both the contribution amount and the fund name or number. The Superannuation Guarantee rate is currently 11.5% and is legislated to rise to 12% from 1 July 2025, so make sure the amount shown reflects the correct rate for the pay period.

Leave balances (annual leave, personal/carer’s leave and long service leave) are not strictly required on a pay slip, but showing them is widely regarded as good practice and helps employees keep track. One category is the exception — see the compliance note below.

Mandatory fields unique to Australian payslips

These are the fields that separate a genuinely compliant Australian pay slip from a generic international template. If any are missing, the pay slip is not Fair Work-compliant even if it otherwise looks professional.

• Employer ABN — the Australian Business Number is mandatory (if the employer has one) and is routinely absent from overseas payslip generators.
• Superannuation fund name and/or number, together with the contribution amount — a specific legal requirement under reg 3.46.
• Award-driven loadings, allowances and penalty rates broken out with both the rate and the dollar amount for each.
• Hourly-rate detail (ordinary rate, hours and total) for hourly employees, or the salary rate as at the last day of the period for salaried employees.

Compliance note: never mention family and domestic violence leave

This is the single most important compliance trap in Australian payroll, and generic tools get it wrong. A pay slip must NOT include any information about paid family and domestic violence leave — not the leave taken during the period, not a balance, and not a description that would reveal it. The rule exists to protect the safety of employees who may be experiencing family and domestic violence, because a pay slip can be seen by others in the household.

To keep the record straight without breaching this rule, any payment made while an employee is taking paid family and domestic violence leave should be shown on the pay slip as ordinary hours of work (or another neutral, existing entitlement), so the leave itself is not identifiable. Do not add a "FDV leave" line, balance or note. Fair Work provides detailed guidance on this at <a href="https://www.fairwork.gov.au/pay-and-wages/pay-slips-and-record-keeping/pay-slips">Fair Work – pay slips</a>.

Electronic pay slips and record-keeping

Pay slips can be issued electronically or in hard copy. An electronic pay slip — typically a PDF emailed to the employee or made available through a secure portal — is fully legal, provided it contains all the mandatory information, is in an easily printable format, and the employee can access and print it privately.

• Issue the pay slip within one working day of paying the employee, whether they are at work or on leave.
• Keep employee pay and time-and-wages records, including pay slips, for at least 7 years — this is a separate record-keeping obligation under the Fair Work Act.
• Records must be legible, in English, and not altered unless to correct an error.
• Providing a pay slip that is false, misleading or missing mandatory information can expose an employer to penalties from the Fair Work Ombudsman.

What this generator gets right that others miss

Most multi-country payslip generators treat Australia as an afterthought. Ours is built around the Fair Work Regulations, so the fields that actually matter are there by default.

• A dedicated employer ABN field, formatted for Australian business numbers.
• A required superannuation section that captures both the fund name/number and the contribution amount.
• No family and domestic violence leave field anywhere on the pay slip — the tool cannot accidentally breach the non-disclosure rule.
• Native A$ (AUD) currency formatting, DD/MM/YYYY dates, and Australian pay frequencies (weekly, fortnightly, monthly).
• Separate lines for allowances, loadings and penalty rates so award entitlements can show their own rate and amount.

A note on legitimate use

This tool is for creating accurate pay slips for wages that have genuinely been earned and paid — for example by small employers without payroll software, or by employees reconstructing a lost pay slip from real figures. It is not for fabricating income or misrepresenting earnings to a bank, landlord or government agency. Producing a false pay slip to obtain finance or a benefit is fraud and carries serious legal consequences. Always base every figure on real employment and real payments.