Payday Super, offshore hiring raising the stakes for payroll

Payroll is fast becoming a boardroom issue in the face of growing compliance risks for Australian businesses, according to a new report from Remote.

Global payroll infrastructure company Remote has released its inaugural Navigating Workforce Transformation report, which was conducted by Censuswide in March 2026, surveying 1,500 respondents in Australia, including 500 HR and business leaders and 1,000 full-time employees (aged 18 or over).

The report found, among other things, that with Payday Super introducing payday-aligned superannuation payments and Victoria’s proposed work-from-home reforms adding further compliance complexity, payroll is increasingly becoming a governance and risk issue for businesses, beyond just an operational function. Moreover, it showed that businesses are navigating a convergence of rising compliance demands, financial pressure, and a workforce “whose expectations around transparency and technology are shifting faster than many employers are ready to manage”.

Findings and analysis

The report noted that nearly half (45 per cent) of businesses believe that the Payday Super changes – which came into effect yesterday (1 July) – have increased, or will increase, the need for board or executive oversight of payroll, which underscores a shift from payroll as an administrative task to a business-wide governance issue.

The concern reflects real financial exposure, Remote said: 85 per cent express concern about penalties for non-compliance, and 42 per cent expect Payday Super to increase payroll administration costs, while 47 per cent of small businesses see cash flow as the most pressing pain point.

While nearly all (89 per cent) of businesses claim to be on track to adhere to their new obligations, “compliance readiness is not the same as operational resilience”, Remote said, with almost one in two (46 per cent) of employers saying they plan to redirect budgets away from hiring and growth.

The looming WFH reforms in Victoria are also compounding the issue, the report noted.

“If such policies were mandated as minimum requirements, 43 per cent of businesses say they would increase offshore hiring, and 47 per cent say they would shift toward contractors rather than permanent staff to reduce regulatory complexity,” Remote said in a statement.

“The instinct to manage domestic compliance pressure by looking offshore is understandable, but it doesn’t remove compliance burden. Each new country follows different tax regimes, employment laws, payroll processes and currency requirements. Adding more countries compounds operational complexity, as expansion across jurisdictions multiplies the number of regulatory systems that must be actively monitored and reconciled. This makes compliance more fragmented and error-prone.”

Businesses that expand confidently, the company said, treat employment and payroll like infrastructure: that is, an underlying system of record that integrates into existing tools and workflows over time.

Elsewhere, many employers are feeling financial pressure, with 44 per cent saying they would need to make significant lifestyle cutbacks or struggle to afford essentials if their pay were to stagnate in the coming year.

To this end, Remote said, pay transparency is becoming a trust and retention issue. Two-thirds of employees say they would consider leaving their employer due to a lack of pay transparency, rising to 75 per cent among Millennials. And among senior managers, three-quarters would think about leaving if pay structures aren’t transparent. Increasingly, the company said, “employees are seeking confidence in the fairness and consistency of pay decisions, not simply higher pay”.

The findings, Remote said, point to a broader requirement for modern payroll infrastructure, whereby organisations provide clearer, auditable visibility into pay structures and payroll decisions.

Increased operational stakes for payroll

Reflecting on the report’s findings, Remote APAC GTM lead Nick Martin said that Australia’s compliance environment is raising the operational stakes for payroll in ways that are difficult to manage through manual processes or fragmented systems.

“Australian businesses are responding to industrial reform by changing how and where they hire. However, they’re discovering that the compliance burden doesn’t disappear, it compounds,” he said.

“Whether a business is paying people in one city or across 20 countries, a compliant payment infrastructure ensures teams can move fast without creating risk. This ensures payroll accuracy, reliable payments, and compliance built in, no matter where employees are located.”

Remote manages the complex components of global employment, Martin said, so that businesses can build the workflows and tools that fit how they operate.

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Jerome Doraisamy

Jerome Doraisamy is the managing editor of Momentum Media’s professional services suite, encompassing Lawyers Weekly, HR Leader, Accountants Daily, and Accounting Times. He has worked as a journalist and podcast host at Momentum Media since February 2018. Jerome is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in NSW, and a board director of the Minds Count Foundation.