How much did Fair Work recover for Australian workers in 2024-25? — full breakdown

The Fair Work Ombudsman's 2024-25 Annual Report shows the regulator continuing its focus on large-scale, systemic back-payments. The headline figures, from the FWO's 2024-25 annual report media release (29 October 2025):

• $358 million recovered for more than 249,000 underpaid workers in 2024-25, taking back-payments to more than $2 billion across the last five years. About 60% (almost $213 million, to nearly 118,000 employees) came from large corporate employers.
• A record $23.7 million in court-ordered penalties, including the FWO's highest-ever penalty in a single legal action: $15.3 million against the operators of Sushi Bay outlets.
• 73 new litigations filed in 2024-25.
• 8 enforceable undertakings, with a total of $47 million back-paid to employees in the financial year. Four of the eight were with universities.
• 1,220 compliance notices (recovering $8.2 million for 3,438 workers) and 743 infringement notices for record-keeping or payslip breaches.

For comparison, the FWO recovered $473 million for nearly 160,000 workers in 2023-24 (FWO 2023-24 release) and $509 million for 251,475 workers in 2022-23 (FWO 2022-23 release).

The FWO's enforceable undertakings register is the clearest public record of which sectors produced the largest back-payments in 2024-25. Of the eight enforceable undertakings listed for the financial year:

• Higher education — four of the eight were universities (University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, La Trobe University and Griffith University), together committing to more than $114 million in back-payments to casual and sessional staff and others. Casual academic pay — marking, tutorial and lecture rates, and unpaid hours — is the recurring issue across the sector.
• Tourism and hospitality — Hamilton Island Enterprises back-paid staff more than $28.1 million and entered into an enforceable undertaking (January 2025).
• Social and community services — Relationships Australia (QLD) back-paid 980 staff over $5.6 million including superannuation and interest, and allied health charity Townsend House signed an enforceable undertaking covering underpayments of more than $76,000.
• Agriculture — R J Cornish & Co. signed an enforceable undertaking relating to wage deductions of nearly $127,000 from 112 employees (FWO media release).

Beyond the register, fast food, restaurants and cafés, aged care and horticulture have long been focus areas for FWO compliance activity. Annualised salary reconciliation — making sure a salary covers every award penalty, overtime hour and allowance — remains a common issue for salaried staff in retail, banking and professional services.

Ranked by back-payment amount, from the FWO enforceable undertakings register and the FWO media release for each:

1. University of Melbourne (December 2024) — $72 million in back payments to over 25,000 staff under an enforceable undertaking (FWO media release).
2. Hamilton Island Enterprises (January 2025) — back-paid staff more than $28.1 million and entered into an enforceable undertaking (FWO media release).
3. University of Sydney (December 2024) — over $23 million in back payments to more than 14,000 staff under an enforceable undertaking (FWO media release).
4. La Trobe University (March 2025) — over $10.77 million in back payments to more than 6,700 staff under an enforceable undertaking (FWO media release).
5. Griffith University (June 2025) — over $8.34 million in back-payments and superannuation to 5,457 staff under an enforceable undertaking (FWO media release).

An enforceable undertaking is a negotiated alternative to litigation: the employer commits to back-pay, audits and compliance measures, and the FWO does not take court action over the same conduct while the undertaking is honoured. Matters the FWO takes to court are reported separately as litigation.

From FWO's published prioritisation framework, investigations typically commence from one or more of:

• Anonymous tip — the FWO's online tip-off form is the single largest source of leads. Workers can submit anonymously; the FWO does not disclose the source.
• Pattern detection — the FWO's Single Touch Payroll data integration with the ATO surfaces below-award payment patterns at scale across an industry or franchise network.
• Industry-priority audits — each year the FWO publishes priority industries (currently: higher education, aged care, agriculture/horticulture, fast food). Random audit programs run against businesses in these sectors.
• Media reporting — high-profile media coverage of underpayment (e.g. specific franchise networks, named employers) frequently triggers FWO investigation within weeks.
• Sham contracting referrals — referrals from unions, industry associations and law firms about systematic misclassification of employees as contractors.

If you're an employer concerned about prior non-compliance, voluntary self-disclosure to the FWO is consistently treated favourably and typically results in enforceable undertaking rather than civil penalty.

For workers: if you suspect underpayment, you have two parallel paths. First, the Back Pay Calculator tells you what you should have been paid. Second, the FWO online tip-off is anonymous and free. The 6-year limitation period on wage recovery means you can claim back to mid-2020. Across all 2024-25 recoveries, the average was roughly $1,400 per worker ($358 million across more than 249,000 workers).

For employers: the gap between voluntary self-disclosure and FWO-detected underpayment is the difference between an enforceable undertaking (manageable) and a civil penalty matter (court-ordered, public, with reputational and franchise consequences). Maximum civil penalty for a body corporate is $546,000 per contravention (from 1 July 2026); serious contraventions can attract higher penalties under the wage-theft criminal provisions that commenced in January 2025.

For routine compliance questions, the FairWork Mate AI advisor cites the relevant FWC and Federal Court decisions when answering award classification, casual conversion and wage-rate questions. For complex matters affecting more than a handful of staff, get a qualified employment lawyer involved early — the cost of correction is always lower than the cost of FWO-led correction.