Do You Get Super When You Are Doing An Internship?

If you are doing a paid internship (check out our post on your intern rights), after you earn a certain amount, your employer will be required to set an amount of money aside to contribute to your superannuation (super) account.

This is why on your first day, your employer would have asked you to provide your super fund details.

Why is super important?

As you might be completing internships at different organisations during the year, or still work at your normal casual job - it’s important that you bring the same super fund details to each employer. It is like your bank details, you want to tell your employer where to deposit it.

Otherwise, you might end up with multiple funds, paying multiple fees.

Super is important, it's your money.

Depending on how much you earn, your employer contributes 11% of your wage into your super account. This money is then invested by managers of the fund. Over time your super compounds so it can be accessed when you retire.

The ATO has a tool to estimate how much super your employer should be contributing for you. Check it out here.

Look organised on your first day

If you don’t provide your super details, your employer will nominate a default fund for you. So, if you have been working somewhere else, this might be a completely different fund!