Migrant workers in Australia are underpaid $3.18 billion a year — how to check yours

A May 2026 SBS report estimated that international students in Australia are underpaid by approximately $61 million per week, or $3.18 billion a year. That's just students — total migrant-worker underpayment is materially larger when you include working-holiday-visa workers, sponsored 482-visa workers, and undocumented labour.

The pattern is consistent: lower-than-NMW cash payment, sham-contracting structures, "internships" that are really paid work without proper classification, and rosters that systematically dodge penalty rates. Hospitality, food delivery, agriculture, cleaning, retail, and beauty are the most commonly affected sectors.

Below is a five-minute check that works regardless of your visa, your industry, or your employer.

Australia's industrial relations system is the same regardless of visa status. Your visa does not change your minimum pay rate. If you're working in Australia legally, you're entitled to:

• The National Minimum Wage of $26.44/hr (full-time/part-time) or $33.05/hr (casual, including 25% loading) as a floor (from 1 July 2026).
• Whatever your Modern Award sets — usually higher than NMW.
• Penalty rates on weekends, evenings, and public holidays as set by your award.
• Superannuation at 12% on top.
• Annual leave (4 weeks) and personal leave (10 days) if you're not casual.

Find your award via /tools/award-finder. Common ones: Hospitality (MA000009), Retail (MA000004), Cleaning (MA000022).

For a single shift, the maths is:

(base hourly rate × ordinary hours) + (penalty-rate hourly rate × penalty hours) + casual loading if applicable + super at 12%

Example: A 19-year-old casual hospitality worker doing a 6-hour Saturday shift at NMW-pegged Hospitality Level 1 ($26.44 base + 25% casual = $33.05/hr). Saturday in Hospitality is 1.25× ordinary (150% of base for casuals including loading), so the Saturday casual rate is approximately $39.66/hr. Six hours = $238. Plus super at 12% = $29 to your super fund. Total $238 plus super.

Run your own numbers via /tools/take-home-pay and /tools/penalty-rates. If your payslip says less than this, you have a wage-theft case.

The Fair Work Ombudsman recovers real money for migrant workers every week, but only when there's evidence. Keep:

• Every payslip. Photo or PDF, dated, every pay period.
• Your roster or shift schedule — how the employer recorded your hours.
• Your own time record. A spreadsheet or notes app entry for every shift you actually worked. The two often disagree.
• Bank statements showing what was actually paid into your account.
• Cash payments noted with date, amount, who paid you, and any witnesses.

This is the #1 reason migrant workers don't speak up: fear that complaining will affect their visa. It will not. Specifically:

• The Department of Home Affairs has an Assurance Protocol with the FWO. Migrant workers who report underpayment are protected from visa cancellation for related work-rights breaches (like working over student visa hour caps).
• Wage theft is a criminal offence since 1 January 2025. The maximum penalty is 10 years' imprisonment for individuals and $9.1 million for companies (from 1 July 2026).
• The FWO can pursue back pay even if you've left the employer or left Australia.

In order:

1. Send your employer a written request for a pay reconciliation. Use our Underpayment Enquiry Letter generator — it produces a formal letter that's been used to recover hundreds of thousands in back pay.
2. If they don't respond or respond inadequately within 14 days, contact the Fair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94 or via fairwork.gov.au. The FWO investigates for free and can compel payment.
3. For complex cases (sham contracting, ongoing employer with assets), a workplace lawyer can run a private claim — but most underpayment is resolvable through the FWO without lawyer fees.
4. For specific situations and an answer that cites the relevant FWC decision, ask FairWork Mate AI — free to try with 1 question, grounded on 240+ Australian workplace decisions.

If you're an employer of migrant workers, the rules apply equally. The FWO has explicitly increased enforcement on hospitality, retail, agriculture, and food delivery employers in 2025-26. The criminal-wage-theft regime targets intentional underpayment — but "I didn't know" is not a defence to civil penalties, which can be up to $109,200 per breach for a company with fewer than 15 employees, or $546,000 for one with 15 or more.

Run a self-audit using FairWork Mate AI or talk to us about FairWork Mate AI for Business (from $99/mo) — that's roughly the cost of one underpayment-related civil penalty.