Why Aussie Businesses Overpay on Staff – and How to Fix It

Hiring in Australia is expensive. If you’re a business owner, you already know the pain. A $60,000 salary never stays at $60,000. Once you add superannuation, leave loading, payroll tax, WorkCover, and other hidden costs, that figure can quickly swell to over $80,000. And that’s before you count the hours you spend on HR admin, onboarding, and payroll.

The problem is not that you’re paying people unfairly. The problem is that the system makes it impossible to build a team without being crushed by costs. The good news is there’s a smarter way. You can hire remote staff in Australia, cut costs, and still build a reliable team you can trust. 

In this blog, we’ll break down why businesses overpay, what’s driving those costs, and how platforms like Staffadoo can help you fix it.

The Real Cost of Hiring in Australia

On paper, you think you’re hiring someone for a $55,000 or $60,000 salary. In reality, that’s just the beginning. Here’s where the extra costs sneak in:

  • Superannuation: 11 percent on top of base pay
  • Annual leave and leave loading: Around 17.5 percent
  • Sick leave and carers leave: Paid time off that adds up fast
  • Payroll tax: Kicks in depending on your state thresholds
  • WorkCover insurance: Mandatory and expensive
  • HR admin costs: Interviewing, onboarding, contracts, compliance
  • Recruitment costs: Recruiting ads, agency fees, lost time during hiring

By the time you add all these layers, your $60,000 employee can cost closer to $80,000 or more per year. And if you make a bad hire? That figure skyrockets because you’re stuck with redundancy payouts, legal risk, and lost productivity.

Why Businesses Keep Overpaying

You might ask, if everyone knows staff costs balloon, why do so many Australian businesses keep overpaying? There are a few reasons:

  1. Limited options: Many owners think the only choices are hiring in-house or using a labour-hire agency.
  2. Fear of freelancers: You’ve probably tried hiring freelancers and found them unreliable or inconsistent.
  3. Red tape pressure: The law makes it risky to dismiss underperforming staff, so you hold onto people longer than you should.
  4. Lack of awareness: Many don’t realise there are platforms designed to give you full-time, reliable staff without the payroll baggage.

This is where Staffadoo changes the game.

How Staffadoo Fixes the Hiring Problem

Why Aussie Businesses Overpay on Staff - and How to Fix It

Staffadoo is built for Australian businesses that are sick of being overcharged for staff. Instead of juggling payroll, tax, and compliance, you simply pay one flat invoice each month.

Here’s what you get when you use Staffadoo:

  • Full-time, degree-educated staff who work only for you
  • Pre-vetted staff so you don’t waste time screening
  • Your hours, your schedule – staff work when your business needs them
  • No payroll admin – no super, no payroll tax, no workers comp, no red tape
  • Scalability – start with one staff member and grow your remote team at your own pace
  • Risk-free guarantee – if you’re not satisfied in 30 days, you don’t pay

Instead of watching your profits vanish into payroll obligations, you keep more of what you earn.

The Benefits of Hiring Remote Staff

When you hire virtual staff, you’re not only saving money. You’re also unlocking advantages that help you scale faster:

  • Lower overheads: Cut out superannuation, payroll tax, and insurance.
  • Access to global talent: Staffadoo connects you with degree-qualified professionals who can handle roles like bookkeeping, admin, customer support, and more.
  • Reliability: Staffadoo staff are full-time and dedicated to you, not juggling multiple clients like freelancers.
  • Simplicity: One $1500 AUD monthly invoice instead of messy payroll and HR paperwork.
  • Control: You choose who to hire and manage their daily work.

This model lets you build remote teams that function just like in-house staff but without the financial burden.

What Roles Can You Hire With Staffadoo?

Many owners think remote staffing only works for technical roles. That’s not true. Through Staffadoo, you can hire staff for almost any business function, including:

  • Administrative assistants
  • Bookkeepers and accountants
  • Customer support representatives
  • Data entry specialists
  • Marketing and social media staff
  • Virtual assistants
  • Sales support staff

Whether you need one reliable person or a whole team, you can build it with Staffadoo.

Why Freelancers and Agencies Don’t Work

You might wonder: why not just hire freelancers or use an agency? Here’s why those options usually fail:

  • Freelancers
    • Juggle multiple clients
    • Unreliable availability
    • No accountability
    • Quality varies wildly
  • Labour-hire agencies
    • Charge big markups
    • Treat staff as temps, not long-term team members
    • Lock you into expensive contracts

With Staffadoo, you skip both problems. You get dedicated staff who only work for you, at a predictable cost, with no payroll traps.

How to Stop Overpaying and Start Scaling

If you’re tired of losing money to payroll obligations, it’s time to make a shift. Here’s how to fix the problem:

  1. Evaluate your current staff costs: Calculate what your employees truly cost after super, tax, and leave.
  2. Decide which roles can be remote: Admin, bookkeeping, customer support, and marketing are all perfect fits.
  3. Use Staffadoo to hire remote staff in Australia: Get pre-vetted, degree-qualified professionals working your hours.
  4. Eliminate payroll stress: With one flat invoice, you can focus on growing your business instead of juggling compliance.
  5. Scale confidently: Add more staff when you need them without being trapped in rigid contracts.

Why Staffadoo Is the Smarter Choice

Why Aussie Businesses Overpay on Staff - and How to Fix It

Business owners choose Staffadoo because it fixes the very problem we’ve been talking about: the inflated cost of hiring in Australia.

With Staffadoo, you get:

  • Predictable costs
  • No legal headaches
  • Dedicated, reliable staff
  • A plug-and-play system that works from day one
  • A 30-day risk-free guarantee

You no longer need to overpay for staff. You can finally hire virtual staff that fit your budget, your business, and your goals.

Conclusion

Australian businesses overpay for staff because the system is stacked with hidden costs. Super, payroll tax, insurance, and red tape all eat into your profit. You can keep fighting that system, or you can step outside it.

With Staffadoo, you get reliable, degree-educated staff who work only for you, at a fraction of the cost of hiring in-house. You control the workday. You save thousands each month. And you do it all without the payroll headaches.

If you’re ready to cut your staffing costs by up to 75 percent and finally build a team you can rely on, Staffadoo is the solution.

Try Staffadoo today and get your free staffing plan.

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