Ensure payroll compliance with expert wage auditing
Understand the importance of wage audits and how our partner, Sasphire Legal, can help you ensure payroll accuracy and legal compliance.
What is a wage audit?
A wage audit is a thorough review of a company's payroll processes and records to ensure compliance with labour laws and wage regulations. It involves verifying that employees are paid correctly according to the applicable minimum wage, overtime rules, and other compensation-related requirements.
Why does your company need one?
Ensuring legal compliance
Reviewing your payroll practices is essential for ongoing legal compliance. Regular audits help businesses adhere to labour laws, preventing legal issues and costly penalties.
Ensuring fair compensation
Wage audits ensure employees are fairly compensated, promoting a positive work environment, boosting morale, and retaining talent. This enhances the company's reputation and supports growth.
Maintaining professional legal privilege
Auditing payroll compliance through lawyers maintains professional legal privilege over all communications, including the audit findings. This ensures confidentiality and security.
Managing underpayment issues
Rectification of underpayment issues should be carefully managed. Wage audits identify payroll discrepancies, and addressing these can help insulate employers from legal action.
Let our partner help you
Established in 2014, Sasphire Legal is a boutique employment law firm that was established to deliver a true partnership experience with its clients based on a specific set of core values.
Sasphire Legal is founded on the core values of excellence, integrity and honesty, with a real focus on the needs of its clients. The firm pride itself on their ability to build relationships with clients founded on trust, honesty and integrity, and over the past decade continue to provide all businesses, big and small, with exceptional and practical legal solutions and assistance in respect of both contentious and non-contentious matters.
Shana and Dean, Sasphire Legal’s principal lawyers, have built a leading and highly distinguished workplace law practice. The firm acts for ASX listed, multinational and private companies across a number of industries including in construction and manufacturing, banking and financial services, technology, trade services, real estate, agriculture and in the retail sector.
Dean was shortlisted as a finalist in the Lawyers Weekly 30 under 30 Awards for Workplace Relations, Employment and Safety for three consecutive years (2017 – 2019) and was fortunate to have won this prestigious award in 2018. Dean was also recognised in 2018 in the Australian Law Awards as a finalist in the categories of Rising Star of the Year and Senior Associate of the Year and has been recognised as a leading employment law specialist.
In 2019, Shana was named a finalist in the Women in Law Awards for the category of ‘Partner of the Year – SME’ and has been named a Leading Employment Lawyer in the prestigious Doyles Guide. Shana is a frequent guest speaker at many industry functions and legal seminars and presents workplace training to clients on all aspects of employment and workplace law.
What happens during a wage audit – explained by a legal expert
What risks result from not conducting a wage audit?
Not conducting a wage audit exposes businesses to significant risks. Without regular audits, companies may fail to comply with legal obligations, leading to severe consequences. Here are some of the key risks:
The statutory limitation period for underpayment issues is six years retrospectively on the present date, increasing the potential financial liability.
Non-compliance may trigger Fair Work Ombudsman investigations and/or prosecutions.
Employers, including company officers and directors, may face substantial civil penalties for wage violations.
As of 1 January 2025, deliberate wage theft will be a criminal offence punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment and/or significant criminal fines.
Houda Lebbos
HR Consultant and Former Chief Human Resources Officer
Frequently asked questions
If your business employs staff under modern awards, enterprise agreements, or the Fair Work Act, a wage audit helps ensure compliance. It's especially important if you’ve had pay structure changes, rely on manual payroll processes, or want peace of mind that you're paying employees correctly.
Not sure if you need one? Submit the form below, and Sasphire Legal can assess your situation.
The timeline depends on the complexity of your payroll and the number of employees. With Subi’s automated data transfer, Sasphire Legal can complete audits faster than traditional manual methods.
Submit your inquiry using the form below, and a legal expert will be in touch.
About Subi
Subi is an innovative compliance solution designed to simplify complex payroll and compliance tasks for companies. Through intuitive automation and data management features, Subi enables organisations and service providers, like Sasphire Legal, to streamline operations, reduce administrative time, and maximise profitability in compliance projects.
For more information on how Subi can transform your wage compliance processes, contact us today.
Get in touch with our wage audit partner
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