Navigating Wage Compliance in 2025: A Perspective on Subi’s Role

Why Wage Compliance is Now a Business Imperative

While we have been building Subi, we have had a front-row seat to the rapidly evolving compliance landscape in Australia. What was once an administrative concern buried within payroll departments has now become a boardroom priority. The criminalisation of wage underpayments, taking effect in January 2025, is one of the most significant regulatory shifts in recent history. For the first time, businesses that knowingly underpay employees will not only face hefty financial penalties but also potential criminal convictions, including up to 10 years in prison.

This is a moment of reckoning for Australian businesses. Wage compliance is no longer a matter of internal best practices—it is now a critical legal obligation that could define a company’s reputation and financial future. Many employers are asking the same question: How do we ensure full compliance before it’s too late?

At Subi, we anticipated this shift early. We’ve spent the past few years building a technology platform that empowers businesses and their advisors to stay ahead of compliance risks. With the introduction of our latest tool, Subi Compliance, we’re helping companies take control of their wage data before regulators and auditors force them to. In this article, I’ll reflect on the challenges businesses face and why our technology is becoming the go-to compliance solution for industry leaders.

Understanding the 2025 Wage Theft Legislation: The Stakes Have Never Been Higher

The new wage theft laws significantly raise the bar for compliance. Employers can no longer afford manual, error-prone payroll processes—the risk of non-compliance has simply become too great. The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) will have expanded investigative powers, and businesses that fail to self-audit may find themselves under scrutiny.

Larger corporations are under particular pressure. While small businesses have a potential safe harbour via a voluntary compliance code, mid-sized and large enterprises have fewer options for leniency. This is why major legal and accounting firms are urging their clients to proactively conduct wage audits—preferably under legal privilege—to identify and rectify any past or present underpayments.

However, traditional wage audits are cumbersome, expensive, and time-consuming. Many organisations struggle to extract payroll data across different systems, leaving compliance teams drowning in spreadsheets. It became clear to us at Subi that a better solution was needed—one that would streamline, automate, and secure compliance efforts.

Why We Built Subi Compliance

Our journey at Subi has always been about making complex financial processes simpler. Initially, we focused on employee financial wellness, helping businesses unlock liquidity from annual leave entitlements. But as we worked closely with payroll teams, a bigger problem emerged: the lack of an easy-to-use compliance tool that could centralise payroll data and automate wage audits.

This is why we built Subi Compliance—a platform that integrates directly with payroll and HR systems, enabling businesses to automate wage audits, identify discrepancies, and rectify issues before they escalate. Our technology reduces the manual burden by:

• ‍Syncing payroll data in real-time from multiple systems, eliminating the risk of data loss or duplication ‍
• Automatically flagging potential underpayments, so compliance teams can focus on solutions, not just problem detection ‍
• Providing legal privilege protections, allowing businesses to securely review and rectify wage discrepancies before engaging with regulators ‍
• Reducing wage audit processing time by up to 80%, making compliance faster and more cost-effective

Our goal was simple: to create a one-click compliance solution that allows businesses and their advisors to act quickly and decisively in response to the new laws.

Adoption Among Industry Leaders: Why Firms Are Choosing Subi

Since launching Subi Compliance, we’ve seen rapid adoption among top law firms, accounting practices, and corporate payroll teams. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive—firms that once struggled with time-consuming audits now complete their compliance checks in a fraction of the time.

Leading professional services firms have integrated our platform into their wage audit workflows, helping clients:

• Identify and rectify underpayments before regulators intervene ‍
• Generate audit-ready reports instantly, reducing the risk of drawn-out investigations ‍
• Ensure compliance with Fair Work requirements, protecting both the company and its executives from potential legal consequences

This isn’t just about technology—it’s about changing the way businesses approach compliance. Instead of reacting to legislative changes, we’re enabling proactive compliance, where businesses always have a clear view of their wage data.

The Future of Compliance: Why Technology is the Only Way Forward

The regulatory landscape will only become more complex in the years ahead. The introduction of criminal penalties for wage theft is just the beginning—governments and regulators worldwide are tightening compliance laws to ensure fair and ethical workplace practices. In Australia, we expect further regulatory shifts that will place additional pressure on businesses to maintain accurate, auditable wage records.

At Subi, we believe that compliance technology will be the defining factor between businesses that thrive and those that fall behind. Payroll complexity isn’t going away, but with the right tools, businesses can protect themselves, ensure fair pay for employees, and operate with confidence in a regulatory landscape that demands transparency.

Final Thoughts: A Call to Action for Business Leaders

If you’re a business leader, HR director, or payroll professional, now is the time to take wage compliance seriously. The 2025 wage theft laws aren’t just another regulatory update—they represent a fundamental shift in employer responsibility. Waiting for an external audit or regulatory intervention is no longer an option.

At Subi, we’ve built a platform designed to empower businesses to take control of their compliance strategy today, rather than react under pressure tomorrow. With Subi Compliance, companies have the tools, automation, and legal safeguards needed to navigate the most significant wage compliance changes in decades.

We’re here to support Australian businesses in meeting these challenges head-on. Compliance doesn’t have to be complex—but ignoring it will be costly.

For those who are ready to take action, Subi Compliance is here to help.