What payments constitute earnings for the purposes of the ordinary time earnings definition?
130. An employee’s ‘earnings’, for the purpose of the definition of OTE, is the remuneration paid to the employee as a reward for the employee’s services. The practical effect for superannuation guarantee purposes is that the expression ‘earnings’ is synonymous with the term ‘salary or wages’.77A Payments to an employee which are not given as remuneration for their services are not included in OTE as such payments would not be ‘salary or wages’. For example, a payment made to reimburse an employee’s out of pocket expenses is not salary or wages and therefore not OTE. 78 Also, for the purposes of the definition of OTE, it must be determined whether the earnings in question are in respect of ordinary hours of work. All amounts of earnings in respect of employment are in respect of the employee’s ordinary hours of work unless they are remuneration for working overtime hours, or are otherwise referable only to overtime or to other hours that are not ordinary hours of work. 131. In the cont
