What is the Employer Distress Index?

The FairWork Mate Employer Distress Index is a 0–100 signal (currently 47) that blends company-insolvency momentum, the year-on-year change in insolvencies, and growth in Fair Entitlements Guarantee (redundancy safety-net) claims. Above 50 signals rising employer distress; below 50 signals easing. It is computed from ASIC and government data by FairWork Mate.

What is the casual employment rate in Australia?

About 20.3% of Australian employees have no paid leave entitlements (the standard casual measure), ranging from 15.5% in the Australian Capital Territory to 24.1% in the South Australia (ABS Working Arrangements, via FairWork Mate).

How much do Fair Work underpayment penalties cost?

The median court penalty for underpayment is about $119,200, and for sham contracting about $168,300, across 516 tracked Fair Work Ombudsman court cases (FairWork Mate analysis).

FairWork Mate Insights · Data Index

The Australian Workplace Data Index

Name: Australian Workplace Data Index
Creator: FairWork Mate
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

A living dashboard of the Australian workplace — enforcement, insolvency, pay and casualisation — with figures computed across government datasets. The numbers no single regulator or generic tool puts in one place.

29 figures, derived from Fair Work Ombudsman, ASIC, ABS and Jobs & Skills Australia data. Aggregate only — no individuals named.

$709.7M

tracked enforcement outcomes

47/100

Employer Distress Index

20.3%

national casual rate

28.7%

occupations in shortage

The Employer Distress Index

A single 0–100 signal that fuses three separate government feeds — company-insolvency momentum, year-on-year insolvency change, and growth in redundancy safety-net (FEG) claims. Nobody else publishes it.

47 / 10050 = neutral · above = rising distress · below = easing

Currently 47 — insolvencies are actually easing (-15.6% year-on-year) even as FEG redundancy claims climb (13.8%). A rare, honest read on employer financial health.

Enforcement reality

What Fair Work breaches actually cost — real penalties and back-pay from the public record.

$709.7M

Total tracked enforcement outcomes

$119,200

Median penalty — underpayment

$168,300

Median penalty — sham contracting

$3,404

Average back-pay per worker

516

Court cases tracked with $ outcomes

80.2%

Enforcement against corporate entities

Employer distress signals

The inputs behind the index — insolvencies, banned directors, and the redundancy safety net.

1,104

Companies entering administration (latest month)

-15.6%

Insolvencies year-on-year

1,938

Directors currently banned

4,076

Redundancy safety-net (FEG) claims / quarter

Work, pay & demand

Casualisation, skills shortages, job demand and pay extremes across the labour market.

20.3%

National casual rate (no paid leave)

24.1%

Most casualised state (South Australia)

28.7%

Occupations in national shortage

211,240

Online job vacancies (national)

$5,366/wk

Highest-paid occupation (Anaesthetists)

8.5pp

AU super vs NZ KiwiSaver gap

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Go deeper

Wage compliance insights →

Where underpayments happen and how much the FWO recovers.

Workplace safety insights →

WHS prosecutions, penalties and the sectors most at risk.

How we compiled this. Every figure is computed across public datasets — Fair Work Ombudsman enforcement, ASIC insolvency and disqualification records, ABS earnings and working-arrangements data, Jobs & Skills Australia demand data, and the Fair Entitlements Guarantee — and refreshes as sources update. Composite indices combine several feeds. Aggregate figures only; no individuals are named. General information, not legal advice.

FairWork Mate Workplace Data Index — a living view of Australian work, built on open government data.