How much has the Fair Work Ombudsman recovered in underpaid wages?

Across published enforceable undertakings, the Fair Work Ombudsman has recovered $641.9M in back-pay for 188,563 workers (FY14–15 to FY25–26). Figures are aggregated from the FWO's public record by FairWork Mate.

What is the average wage underpayment per worker in Australia?

The average back-paid worker was owed about $1,739, based on enforceable undertakings that report both a back-pay figure and a worker count (FairWork Mate analysis of the Fair Work Ombudsman record).

Which industry has the most wage underpayments in Australia?

Higher education accounts for the largest share of recovered back-pay — about $214.5M, or 33% of all back-pay recovered through FWO enforceable undertakings. Banking, healthcare, aged care and retail follow.

How much do employers pay in Fair Work court penalties?

Across 531 court matters, the Fair Work Ombudsman has secured $68.1M in penalties. The median penalty is about $27,720, with the largest reaching $15,300,000 (FairWork Mate analysis of the public FWO litigation record).

What breaches most often lead to Fair Work court action?

Compliance-notice breaches appear in about 59% of the 531 court matters, record-keeping and payslip failures in about 30%, and underpayment of wages in about 28%. A single matter can involve several breach types.

FairWork Mate Insights · Wage compliance

What Australia's wage-compliance record actually shows

Name: Australian Wage Compliance Insights
Creator: FairWork Mate
License: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/website-information/copyright

A plain-English read of the Fair Work Ombudsman's published enforcement outcomes — where underpayments happen, how much gets recovered, and where the risk is heading. Sector-level patterns, drawn entirely from the public record.

Source: Fair Work Ombudsman enforceable undertakings + court outcomes (FY14–15 to FY25–26). Aggregate figures only — no individual employers named.

$641.9M

recovered for workers via enforceable undertakings

188,563

workers back-paid

$68.1M

court penalties across 531 matters

$1,739

average back-pay per worker

Where the money went back

Share of recovered back-pay by sector. A handful of industries account for most of it — useful if you're benchmarking your own compliance risk.

Higher Education$214.5M · 33%

Banking$56.0M · 9%

Healthcare$41.6M · 6%

Aged Care$38.9M · 6%

Financial Services$32.0M · 5%

Not-for-profit$31.7M · 5%

Tourism$28.1M · 4%

Recoveries are climbing fast

Back-pay recovered through enforceable undertakings, by financial year. The direction of travel is the headline every compliance team should see.

$29.8M

$59.3M

$45.7M

$99.2M

$91.9M

$148M

$166.8M

19–2020–2121–2222–2323–2424–2525–26

Roughly a 6× rise since FY19–20. Recoveries jumped from $29.8M to a $166.8M peak — driven by large back-pay settlements and the wage-theft criminal offence that started 1 January 2025. Enforcement isn't slowing down.

What actually gets employers in trouble

Breach types across the 531 court matters. Note how often it's record-keeping — not just the underpayment itself. Clean records are the cheapest insurance an employer has.

Compliance-notice breaches59%

Record-keeping / payslips30%

Underpayment of wages28%

Misrepresentation4%

Hindering inspectors4%

What this means for you

Employers

If you're in higher ed, health, aged care or retail, you're in the FWO's highest-recovery sectors — and record-keeping trips up more employers than underpayment itself. Pressure-test your own exposure before the FWO does.

Estimate your exposure →

Workers

The average back-paid worker was owed $1,739 — and underpayments cluster in specific sectors and awards. If you're in one of them, it's worth a two-minute check against your award rate.

Check if you're underpaid →

Want to dig into the numbers? Ask our AI advisor — it's grounded in the same Fair Work record.

Ask the advisor →

How we compiled this. Figures are aggregated from the Fair Work Ombudsman's published enforceable undertakings and court-outcome records (FY14–15 to FY25–26), and refresh as new outcomes are published. We report sector-level patterns only and do not name individual employers. Enforceable undertakings are frequently entered into without any admission of liability. This is general information, not legal advice — verify anything specific with the Fair Work Ombudsman (13 13 94) or a qualified professional.

FairWork Mate Insights — a living view of Australia's wage-compliance record, built on public, aggregate FWO data.

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