The result is a $32.81 million gap in employer contributions throughout the employment region, Industry Super Australia believes.

That’s a conservative estimate, based on a theoretical contribution of 8.75 per cent instead of the mandated 9.5 per cent.

Bendigo workers are being deprived of an average of $1758, according to Industry Super Australia’s analysis of Australian Taxation Office data from 2015-16.

An estimated 18,660 people in the region are either underpaid or do not receive superannuation contributions from their employer.

Bendigo residents are not alone, with Ballarat recording comparable figures in the report.

In fact, regional centres were generally worse off than the metropolitan areas surveyed.

Industry Super Australia chief executive Bernie Dean said the prevalence of more precarious or unstable employment such as casual or seasonal work increased with distance from metropolitan Melbourne.

“With super only being paid on a quarterly basis many of those workers are not keeping track of whether superannuation is going into their accounts,” he said.

“Unfortunately, some employers are holding those contributions back.”

The report found workers most at risk of missing out on super were under the age of 35; earning less than $30,000; and in a ‘blue collar’ occupation.

Mr Dean said those risk factors applied to almost half the working population in regional Victoria.

The chance of being underpaid super if all three risk factors were present was 54 per cent.

Mr Dean said it was no secret people people struggled to get that money back, particularly if they were in a fund that didn’t offer a program to help retrieve unpaid contributions.

“It should not be up to a young worker to go and chase their super,” he said.

“The system should look after them.”

Industry Super Australia has called for payment of super to become mandatory at the time of an employee’s salary. 

It also called for better monitoring and enforcement by the relevant authorities, and for penalties against employers who did the wrong thing to be utilised. 

The report suggested the federal government’s Fair Entitlements Guarantee be extended to superannuation to compensate employees in the event of a company going bust.

“The loophole has been there for a long time. People have known about it for a long time. It’s time for federal parliament to close the loophole,” Mr Dean said. 

An Australian Parliament Senate Economics Committee made recommendations to address unpaid super in 2017, as a result of an inquiry.

The Industry Super Australia report observed that none of the 32 recommendations for change had been legislated or progressed in any significant way since.

“The problem has deteriorated,” it found.

“The total amount of unpaid employer super contributions for Victorian workers is $1.3 billion, with the average underpayment being $1,805.

“Every day that the problem goes unfixed, it costs Victorian workers $3.67 million.”

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