2. Warnings

The average base salary amount(s) you have provided for the employee groups in the reference field appear to be very low.

• You must provide base salary for all employee(s) as the annualised and full-time equivalent amount.
• All employees should have an annualised base salary of at least $49,000, with exceptions listed below.

Reasons accepted 

• Junior and/or trainee employees are included, and their salaries have been correctly annualised (base salary should be over $18,000).
• Employees in a disability scheme are included, and their salaries have been correctly annualised (base salary should be over $5,000, or you need to provide a detailed justification confirming the amounts are annualised).
• Apprentice employees are included.
• Some employees are in commission-based roles.
• Some employees are paid a base salary supplement by another organisation.

Unacceptable reasons

• Casual or part-time employees
• Employees on unpaid leave
• Terminated employees
• Salary sacrificing.

See below for further details.
 

Unit level file: Steps to resolve

1. Review the base salary amount for the employee types referenced and update the figure if you have not calculated it to an annualised and full-time equivalent amount.
2. Regardless of employment status or actual hours worked (including employees who took unpaid leave and casual employees), all base salary and total remuneration figures must be pro-rated to their annualised full-time equivalent amounts.
3. Any casual employee with no pay data to report should be omitted from the file.
4. As the warning relates to an average amount there may be one or more outliers in the cohort with extremely low earnings.
5. If you do not update the figures, you must provide a reason why the calculated base salary amount is lower than expected.
    

STP/payroll file

This file compares the ordinary hours figure in Column L and employee start date in Column M you have provided against the information entered in the first tab of the file (full-time ordinary hours, snapshot date).

For example, if the first tab of the file has been set to 38 hours per week as full-time, and the snapshot date of 31/03/2023 is used:

• Any employee with an ordinary hours figure of 38 in Column L will be considered full-time, and no calculation will take place.
• Any employee with an ordinary hours figure less than 38 hours in Column L will have pro-rata earnings calculated up to the equivalent of 38 hours.
• No calculation will take place for an employee with a start date in Column M of more than 12 months before the snapshot date.
• Any employee with a start date in Column M of less than 12 months before the snapshot date will have pro-rata earnings calculated up to the equivalent of working the full 12 months.   

Steps to resolve

1. Review the ordinary hours and start dates for the employee cohorts identified as having low salary in your file(s), scanning along to Column U. This figure should represent what base salary the employee would earn if they had worked a full year for full-time hours. It has been calculated based on the actual earnings, ordinary hours and start dates provided, as well as the information entered in the first tab of the file.
2. Ensure the identified employee cohorts have ordinary hours figures provided which correspond to the working hours in respect to the particular period (e.g. weekly, fortnightly) specified in the ‘Instructions’ tab of your Workplace Profile.
3. Casual employees who work extremely irregular hours may need to be put on to their own template, set to yearly (e.g. 38 hours/week is 1,976 hours/year), with their actual working hours provided. See Column K – Ordinary hours for more information.
4. Employees who took unpaid leave during the reporting period will need to have their start date changed accordingly. See Column L – Employee start date for more information.
5. If you do not update the figures, you must provide a reason why the final calculated income for the identified employees is correct.

Casual and part-time employees have a substantially lower average base salary and average total remuneration than full-time employees in your Workplace Profile.

All employees on the file must have salary and remuneration provided as their annualised and full-time equivalent amount.

Reasons accepted

• Trainee employees are included.
• Employees in a disability scheme are included.
• Apprentice employees are included.
• Some employees are in commission-based roles.
• Some employees are paid a base salary and/or remuneration supplement by another organisation.

Unit level file 

The base salary and total remuneration amounts provided are substantially lower than full-time employees. You must use casual or part-time employees’ actual earnings and calculate these to an annualised and full-time equivalent amount. 

Steps to resolve

1. Review the casual and/or part-time employees in each occupation referenced and ensure that the final figures represent an annualised and full-time equivalent earnings amount.
2. If the salary/remuneration data is incorrect, please review and update it.
3. If you do not update the figures, you must provide a reason why it is legitimate for casual or part-time employees to have substantially less earnings than full-time employees, when they are calculated as working for the same amount of time.

STP/payroll file 

The calculated income of the part-time and casual employees on your file is coming out lower than full-time employees. This file compares the ordinary hours figure in Column L and employee start date in Column M you have provided against the information entered in the first tab of the file (full-time ordinary hours, snapshot date).

For example, if the first tab of the file has been set to 38 hours per week as full-time, and the snapshot date of 31/03/2023 is used:

• Any employee with an ordinary hours figure of 38 in Column L will be considered full-time, and no calculation will take place.
• Any employee with an ordinary hours figure less than 38 hours in Column L will have pro-rata earnings calculated up to the equivalent of 38 hours.
• No calculation will take place for any employee with a start date in column M of more than 12 months before the snapshot date.
• Any employee with a start date in Column M of less than 12 months before the snapshot date will have pro-rata earnings calculated up to the equivalent of working the full 12 months.   

Steps to resolve

1. Review the part-time and casual employees in your file(s) and the ordinary hours and start dates provided. The calculated fields (beginning at Column U) should represent what they would earn if they had worked a full year for full-time hours. These figures have been calculated based on the actual earnings, ordinary hours, and start dates provided, as well as the information entered in the first tab of the file.
2. Ensure that part-time and casual employees have ordinary hours figures provided which correspond to the working hours in respect to the particular period (e.g. weekly, fortnightly etc).
3. Casual employees who work extremely irregular hours may need to be put on to their own template, set to yearly (e.g. 38 hours/week is 1,976 hours/year), with their actual working hours provided.

If you do not update the figures, you must provide a reason why the final calculated income for casual and part-time employees is correct.

The proportion of managers in the Workplace Profile is uncommonly high. This warning is calculated based on the total number of manager employees per ABN.

Reasons accepted

• This organisation has a flat structure or is primarily management (e.g. head office/ management operations).

Steps to resolve

• Locate the employees listed as managers in Column D. Update or confirm that all employees using a manager category have been correctly recorded.
• If you do not update the file, you must provide a reason why a high proportion of managers is being reported for a specific ABN.

The number of CEOs and KMPs in your Workplace Profile is lower than expected.

• If you are a standalone organisation, you must have a CEO in your uploaded file.
• If your submission is for a section of your corporate group, it must at least contain a KMP or HOB.

Reasons accepted

• All managers are employed in another entity.
• This organisation is in administration.
• Roles are currently vacant.

Steps to resolve

1. Review the values you have provided for the manager category in Column D.
2. Ensure you are reporting at least one CEO for a standalone company, and at least one KMP or HOB for a submission covering part of a corporate structure.
3. If you do not update your file, please provide a reason why no leadership has been reported.

The difference between the base salary and total remuneration amounts for the identified employee cohorts is an amount less than the superannuation guarantee.

Reasons accepted

• Superannuation not paid on overtime.
• Superannuation cap reached.
• Employee(s) earned less than the monthly threshold for superannuation guarantees.

Unit level file: Steps to resolve

1. The check of your file looks for a minimum 10% rise between the base salary and total remuneration amounts to account for the employee being paid superannuation.
2. You must review and update the total remuneration amount to include superannuation if it was paid to the employee.
3. If not all identified employee cohorts are updated, you must provide a reason why superannuation was not paid or not required to be paid.

STP/payroll file: Steps to resolve

1. Ensure that superannuation has been entered into Column R – Super.
2. If you do not update the figures, please provide a reason why the employee(s) does not appear to earn superannuation on all base earnings.

The number of employees in your Workplace Profile with an occupational category of 'other' (0000) is uncommonly high.

• This occupational code is only used for highly specialised or unique employee roles that defy categorisation.

Reasons accepted

• The roles in this category are highly specialised. (Note: you must provide details why the employee does not fit an existing ANSZCO major occupation.)

Steps to resolve

1. Ensure you are using the ANZSCO major occupations at a minimum.
2. Review each '0000' employee and allocate a major occupation code listed in the 'Explanation' tab of the template.

All of the managers in your Workplace Profile are CEOs. Usually there is at least one manager other than a CEO in a workplace.

Reasons accepted

• This organisation is part of a global group with no managers in Australia.
• Other managers are employed by other legal entities.

Steps to resolve

1. Review and/or update the file being uploaded and check that all managers have been included.
2. If the file is not updated, you must provide a reason why every manager included in the Workplace Profile is at the CEO level.

The proportion of graduates employed under formal graduate programs in your Workplace Profile is uncommonly high.

• The ‘graduates’ category is used for employees who are part of a formal graduate program.
• The category should not be used for tertiary degree holders.

Reasons accepted

• The graduate program typically has a high intake each year.
• There was a significant increase in hiring through the graduate program this year.

Steps to resolve

1. Review the graduate entries in Column F. Remove the value 'G' if the employee was not employed as part of a formal graduate program.
2. If you do not update the file, please provide a reason why such a high proportion of employees are employed as part of a formal graduate program.

The average total remuneration amount(s) you have provided for the employee groups in the reference field appear to be very high.

• You must provide total remuneration for all employee(s) as the annualised and full-time equivalent amount.

Reasons accepted

• Some employees received bonuses or discretionary payments.
• Some employees were paid commission.
• Some employees were paid above market rate.
• Some employees were highly specialised.
• Some employees worked offshore or in remote locations.

Unit level file: Steps to resolve

1. Review the total remuneration amount for the employee types referenced. Update the figure if you have not calculated it to an annualised and full-time equivalent amount.
2. As it relates to an average amount there may be one or more outliers in the cohort with extremely large earnings.
3. If you do not update the figures, you must provide a reason why the average calculated total remuneration amount for each identified cohort is much higher than expected.

STP/payroll file: Steps to resolve

This file compares the ordinary hours figure in Column L and employee start date in Column M you have provided against the information entered on to the first tab of the file (full-time ordinary hours, snapshot date).

• Check the figures in Column Y for each employee type identified, as the calculated income is coming out extremely high based on the information you have entered.

For example, if the first tab of the file has been set to 38 hours per week as full-time, and the snapshot date of 31/03/2023 is used:

• Any employee with an ordinary hours figure of 38 in Column L will be considered full-time, and no calculation will take place.
• Any employee with an ordinary hours figure less than 38 hours in Column L will have pro-rata earnings calculated up to the equivalent of 38 hours.
• No calculation will take place for any employee with a start date in Column M of more than 12 months before the snapshot date.
• Any employee with a start date in Column M of less than 12 months before the snapshot date will have pro-rata earnings calculated up to the equivalent of working the full 12 months.

Steps to resolve

1. Review the ordinary hours and start dates for the employee cohorts identified as having low salary in your file(s). The calculated fields (beginning at Column U) should represent what they would earn if they had worked a full year for full-time hours. These figures have been calculated based on the actual earnings, ordinary hours, and start dates provided, as well as the information entered in the first tab of the file.
2. Ensure the identified employee cohorts have ordinary hours figures provided which correspond to the working hours in respect to the particular period (e.g. weekly, fortnightly).
3. Casual employees who work extremely irregular hours may need to be put on to their own template, set to yearly (e.g. 38 hours/week is 1,976 hours/year), with their actual working hours provided.
4. If you do not update the figures, you must provide a reason why the final calculated total remuneration is correct.

Organisations registered as a partnerships must have at least one equity or non-equity partner reported in their Workforce Management Statistics file in Question 8.

• There were no equity or non-equity partners detected in the uploaded file.

Steps to resolve

1. Locate question 8 in the workforce management statistics and populate the table with the number of your equity and/or non-equity partners.
2. If you do not update the file, please provide a reason why no partners are being reported in an organisation that was confirmed as a partnership.

There are more employees who went on parental leave in your Workforce Management Statistics submission than in your Workplace Profile submission.

Steps to resolve

1. Review your uploaded Excel files from both sections and identify the employee cohort that is listed in the reference field of this issue.
2. Check why a large proportion of these employees took parental leave and amend if an error was made.
3. If no updates are made, please confirm that the data provided is correct.

The number of employees promoted to manager in Question 2 exceeds the total number of promotions for managers in Question 1. 

Steps to resolve

1. Review the numbers provided for each category in both questions.
2. Update the number of employees in each category to ensure values for each category in Question 2 do not exceed the values in Question 1.
3. Reupload your file.