In Australia, if you are over 18 years old and earn at least $450 a month (before tax), or you are under 18 years old, being paid $450 or more (before tax) in a calendar month and work more than 30 hours in a week, your employer is required to make contributions to your super fund. Due quarterly, the basic objective of the 9.5% minimum contribution is to provide you with a source of income in retirement.

But if you discover that your employer has not been meeting their superannuation obligations, you will likely find yourself moving through four main stages of financial grief.

1. Denial

Your initial reaction may be to let it go.

Many people find the prospect of speaking up too scary or overwhelming because they don’t fully understand their entitlements and don’t want to cause trouble with their employer.

This is the attitude your not-so-super employer is counting on. If you find yourself hesitant to speak up out of fear of the potentially serious consequences for your employer, remember that it is their choice to break the law by failing to pay your compulsory superannuation contributions.

It is also likely that this is not an isolated event. As Adriano Zumbo (who made headlines this week for failing to pay his young staff superannuation and overtime proves), if one employee is affected, other staff in your organisation are also likely to be affected. Your decision to speak up could benefit a number of your colleagues who may not be fully aware of their entitlements.

Another kind of denial you may experience is to deny the severity of the situation by wrongly convincing yourself that there is nothing to gain from chasing up unpaid super:

It’s just super! There is no immediate benefit, and I’ll get another job – a proper full-time job – once uni is over.”

Remember that everything you do plays a role in shaping who you are and who you will become.

The reality is that we are all working towards our future and you shouldn’t downplay the situation because casual work while studying is not part of your bigger picture – because it is. To move forward, out of the denial stage try to avoid hiding from the facts – at 25 years of age, every $1,000 in your superannuation becomes $14,000 by retirement.

That little kernel of truth should do the trick to catapult you straight to the next stage of financial grief …

2. Anger

Once you become informed, anger will inevitably follow.

Unethical employers justify their actions on the basis that it is not personal. But if you have a good working relationship with your employer, and genuinely want to see them succeed, particularly if they run a small business, their decision to cheat you out of your entitlements can feel very personal and manipulative.

At this stage, you might find yourself asking why your employer would do this – and the glaringly obvious answer is because it is more money in their pocket. But it is so much more than that. While the employer superannuation contribution might not be finding its way to your super fund, you can almost guarantee that your employer is claiming it as a tax deduction.

Put simply, this means it reduces their taxable income and they end up paying less tax. However, there is a distinct difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion: the former means avoiding tax in legal ways, while not paying super falls under the latter. It’s fraud, and it’s a crime.

Depending on your situation, you might find yourself stuck in an anger cycle for quite a while – I know I did. You may find it hard to go to work and the compounded stress of the situation may start to negatively impact your wellbeing and close relationships.

If this is happening to you, it’s time to take control.

3. Bargaining

Money is always awkward to talk about, there’s no way around that.

By the bargaining stage, you should be ready to deal with the issue directly by talking to your employer.

Equip yourself with as much information as possible. If you think that your employer is avoiding their superannuation obligations, or not paying you the correct amount, do some preliminary investigating to confirm your suspicions:

• Check your MyGov account to see how much your employer has contributed to date
• If you are not sure which super account payments are made to, talk to your payroll officer. Ask which super account your payments are made to, and how often they are made
• Look at when your employer is making contributions, if any, in your super fund account and how frequently (weekly, fortnightly, monthly or quarterly) they are being made
• Check with your super fund about whether those payments are being received from your employer as it may be a simple administrative error

Print out all your statements and calculate how much you are owed.

In some cases, unpaid super may be an honest oversight and it’s important to give your employer the opportunity to amend it by raising the issue directly with them before reporting it to the ATO. Remember that you are not asking for anything that you are not entitled to.

4. Acceptance

If you have spoken to your employer, and they are still not paying your super, their behaviour may be intentional avoidance of the superannuation guarantee. In the acceptance stage, it’s time to take positive action.

Lodge an unpaid super enquiry with the Australian Tax Office (ATO). This is an online form, in which you provide details such as your tax file number, chosen superannuation fund and corresponding account number, your employer’s business number and, permission to disclose your name to your employer during their investigation.

Once the ATO receives your enquiry, they will begin an investigation as to whether you are owed superannuation. This involves requesting information from your employer and can take up to 4-6 months.

If a superannuation debt is established, the ATO will inform you of the amount owing to you. This amount includes the super owed to you, plus interest (currently 10%) as well as an administration fee.

Unpaid superannuation – need for change

In 40% of superannuation complaints received by the ATO, this is where the road ends.

Where the cost of an investigation is greater than the amount owing to you, the investigation may not proceed. It is clear that this is an area in need of attention.

The ATO knows that small businesses employing young, low-income earners (hi, Uni students) are most likely to be non-compliant with compulsory superannuation contributions. These ‘high risk’ employers are selected for random auditing, but with analysis of ATO data showing that there is over $3.66 billion in unpaid super in Australia, there is still work to be done.

Obtaining outstanding superannuation contributions is not a specific function of the ATO. So whose responsibility is it?

Greater scrutiny and accountability for financial professionals

Is it the responsibility of the accountant who, in some cases, actively assists unethical employers with tax evasion? Perhaps stronger and more serious penalties need to be put in place for accountants who orchestrate ways for clients to evade their legal obligations or for making misleading statements or representations when dealing with a business’ tax affairs.

Perhaps the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants needs to be updated and tightened so that accountants are bound to maintain a similar standard of professional conduct as lawyers, and are held more strictly to account for maintaining the integrity of the Australian taxation system.

Superfund involvement

Or should super funds take a more active role in protecting the entitlements of their members?

Some super funds send follow up letters to employers whose contributions are falling behind. These letters serve as reminders regarding an employer’s superannuation obligations and reiterate the risks and penalties associated with non-compliance. But such letters ultimately lack the required authority.

Government involvement

Ultimately, I believe that part of the answer to Australia’s massive unpaid superannuation problem is technology. The government’s MyGov system is a centralised place where it is possible to Log In and access Medicare, Centrelink, the ATO, view your scary HECS debt as well as the total amount you have saved in superannuation.

It seems that a viable solution to Australia’s massive unpaid superannuation problem may be to amalgamate and refine the existing MyGov system. Perhaps with a few adjustments, the system could red flag when an individual’s income and the amount contributed to their superannuation fund do not match.

This type of digital flag could automatically send a warning to an employer, and a notification to an employee, that attention is required. Where no positive action is taken to make the required contributions within a specified timeframe, an automatic report could be filed with the ATO for investigation. The benefit of such a system would relieve the need for employees to proactively be aware of their rights and to raise it with unethical employers.

Finally

Don’t fall into the trap of denying the seriousness of your unpaid super situation, staying angry, or not taking any action at all because you don’t know what to do. In these situations, the only outcome to be achieved from silence is to your detriment.

Instead, arm yourself with the information we mention and open a dialogue with your employer. If this strategy is ineffective, weigh up whether your next step is to make an official report to the ATO.

Have you, or anyone you know, ever been in a situation where your employer is not paying your superannuation entitlements? How did you handle it? Let us know in the comments!

Further Information

If you think your employer is not paying enough superannuation, or not paying your super at all, report it to the Australian Tax Office (ATO):

Call 13 10 20 or use the online form.

It could be triggered by something small, like a strange coincidence, by general life malaise or by a serious personal or professional disappointment which causes you to begin to question everything.

Ask 5 friends today whether they have experienced some form of existential angst in the past 12 months and at least 3 will answer ‘yes’ (if you are reading this, you probably answered ‘yes’ too).

Overthinking personal or career problems, feeling overwhelmed, anxious, depressed and stressed for protracted periods of time is a common affliction for young Australians. Second-guessing our past decisions, questioning our current circumstances, and striving to forecast our futures are some of the main factors contributing to an outbreak of what we’re describing as ‘millennial life fright.’

Why are many millennial Australians experiencing a spike in early life crises? 

Perhaps more than preceding generations, Gen Y Australians are cripplingly conscious of our limitations and our own mortality.

We understand that life is finite and there is no time to waste, leaving us prone to setting ambitious, and sometimes unrealistic, goals. We make mental layer cakes formed of equal parts hope, ambition, pressure and expectation.

Our hopes and dreams

But when these dreams fail to materialise on our abstract mental timeline, we go to water.

Rather than taking small setbacks in our stride by taking a beat, re-thinking, re-grouping, and re-jigging our plans, we can sometimes be susceptible to catastrophising the situation. For example:

I didn’t get the job, so I’m never going to be able to get a job ever and will never amount to anything. I’m going to be a deadbeat loser my entire life with no career, no hope and no prospects.”

The main byproduct of this deeply ingrained generational proclivity for disappointment and self-loathing is ongoing levels of anxiety, stress, and depression.

What our unusually cruel internal dialogue tells us is that the only logical reason why things have not worked out according to our original watertight plan is because we are impossible failures. Our friends or classmates will go on to enjoy wild success and enviable accomplishments, while we sit and ruminate in an unbearable pit of despair.

Somewhat counterintuitively, the more we tend to experience these anxious and negative thoughts, the more we try to convince our wider social media networks that we are leading full, happy and successful lives.

The result is a digital vortex that pulls millions of unwitting and increasingly dissatisfied young Australians into its murky depths.

Social media is the carrier, self-doubt is the virus

Social media is a place where everyone is having the best day of their life every single day.

The fact that these platforms feed us a curated ‘highlight reel’ is not lost on most millennials. It does, however, still succeed in generating overwhelming feelings of inferiority at times.

We are all guilty of looking at what our peers are doing – whether in the form of kicking career goals, travelling the world, buying a new house, getting married or having a baby – and comparing their success to our lives, thereby questioning our own journey and achievements:

Who am I? What am I doing with my life? Should I be doing more?”

More often than not we leave social media networks feeling as though we have simultaneously been punched in the solar plexus and are coming down with a hideous virus.

But self-doubt and disenchantment have become psychological viruses of sorts. They have not only found their perfect breeding ground in social media’s fragile and narcissistic ‘ego-system’, but are also capable of using these digital environments to spread through Newsfeeds, multiply exponentially, and infect millions of unsuspecting users daily.

These viruses of doubt quickly infect our subconscious and warp how we see ourselves.

It is a painful process that often makes us realise the ways in which our actual self differs from our ideal self. This is a major source of anxiety for many Gen Y.

Social media lives seem real. But rather than doubt the legitimacy of our friends’ digital world, we doubt the legitimacy of our own.

Viral content, like Prince Ea’s motivational video below, for example, are brilliantly inspiring but they also contribute to lingering questions about whether we are missing something or should be doing more.

They make us feel as though if we are not doing or achieving something significant every day that we have, in some way, failed to live a full life.

My personal experience with self-doubt is consistent with this. I graduated with a Bachelor of Laws/Bachelor of Psychological Science in May 2016. Since then, it feels as though all I have managed to accomplish with my degree is successfully appeal a parking ticket. I have so much ambition and when asked ‘whether I am going to use my degrees’ I am reminded of the disparity between who I am, who I want to be, and the steps I am taking (or not taking) to get there.

Social media only exacerbates this anxiety and self-doubt. I am constantly reminded that others my age seem to have it all figured out. I look at what they are doing and feel flawed, doubtful and inferior.

Like many other young Australians, I am left wondering ‘What am I doing wrong?’

Causes of common career crises

Through work, we are searching “for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying” – Studs Terkel

Daily internal dialogue

You may absolutely love studying your degree – but will it ultimately lead you down a career path that you are equally passionate about?

You might adore your job – but is it something you can see yourself staying in for five, ten or even twenty years?

The reason many of us become ensnared in paralysing worry and self-doubt about our occupational choices is that we have a habit of blurring the lines between a job, a career, and a calling.

We needlessly worry about selling out, selling ourselves short and becoming inauthentic versions of ourselves.

In her book, Simple Abundance, Sarah Ban Breathnach distinguishes between three categories of work and attributes much existential suffering to those who are searching for a calling, not a job.

1. A job is something that is a means to an end. It pays the bills and may be a temporary position that tides you over as you search for something else. For example, casual hospitality work.

2. A career is something you usually study for and unfolds according to a clear occupational path. For example, legal, advertising, medicine, engineering, accounting, publishing. It generally pays well and has security and predictability. But it may not bring you passion, help you to sleep peacefully or fulfil a deeper purpose in your life.

3. A calling is that gnawing feeling in the pit of your stomach. It is the idea that keeps you awake at night. It is why you get excited to get up every morning. It may not pay well, in fact, it may not pay anything at all. But it is something you feel that you are meant to do because it uses your unique skill set to fulfil a higher purpose which brings you peace, fulfilment, authentic happiness and meaning.

Your career may well be your calling. Or you may have a career but find that you are still searching for your calling. The search for meaning is, perhaps, why many of us are pursuing creative passions in the form of entrepreneurial ventures or side projects built around full-time work.

How to handle inevitable existential distress

It is easy to regard self-doubt and anxiety as uniformly negative emotions. But, when handled correctly, engaging in deep thinking about different stages of your life can be a powerful and positive exercise. It means you have a sound idea about your life goals and that you are not willing to settle.

• Write down your goals.

Try to break them down into bite-sized and manageable segments. Do you want to be running your own business in 5 years time? You can start by gaining industry knowledge and experience by working in a similar startup. When you do decide to launch your business, you will be able to do so from a solid foundation.

Importantly, celebrate everyday triumphs. Never underestimate small, or seemingly insignificant, accomplishments. Every win has brought you one step closer to achieving your dream than you were yesterday.

• Be mindful

Practising mindfulness means spending time appreciating your life as it is right now, without judgment.

If it has become a source of anxiety, take a step back from social media and other negative influences or people in your life. Consciously removing yourself from unrealistic external sources of pressure and negativity limits their power to influence you and your overall happiness.

As a start, experiment with great apps, such as Headspace, which coach you through effective strategies to meditate and to exercise mindfulness everyday.

Monash University also runs free online courses on Mindfulness for Wellbeing and Peak Performance.

• Talk to someone

There is an excellent chance that your friends are feeling, or have felt, the same way you are right now.

Remember that nobody goes through life at the same pace, and not everyone wants to achieve the same things that you do. This means that it is impossible to compare your life with somebody else’s and to expect similar results.

When it comes to millennial Australians, the reality is that we are not following the same well-worn path as our predecessors, or our contemporaries. Our personal and professional timelines are not linear.

The key to minimising the impact of an existential crisis, then, is to appreciate what you have now while working towards what you want. If you already know what you value and where you intend to go in life, then you are already a success.

The good news?

The best part about having an existential crisis is the dawning realisation that you don’t have to figure everything out right now.An existential crisis just means that you are questioning ideas and challenging the status quo, whether in your own life or a broader social context, and this is a sign of a healthy mind that is engaged with life.

One of the simultaneously exquisite and excruciating parts of life is that your true path will only emerge at a time and place when you are ready to receive it.

In the meantime, keep dreaming, keep seeking and keep believing.

But when social media platforms are misused to go further than a little harmless fun, such as making serious threats and offensive or improper suggestions, do we ever stop to think – is this against the law?

A Sydney man, Zane Alchin, who made a string of abusive and sexually threatening comments on a screenshot of a woman’s Tinder profile which was posted to Facebook posed the question:

What law am I breaking?’

The answer came in the form of a conviction by a court for using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend under Part 10.6 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act 1995 (the Criminal Code). The maximum penalty is 3 years imprisonment.