A new report by Victorian workers’ advocacy body Young Workers Centre has revealed some shocking stats on illegal wage practices, including that one in five young Australian workers are being paid at rates below the minimum wage.
Even more alarmingly, more than half of those underpaid workers told surveyors that they thought they were receiving minimum wage – which means that they’re being lied to by their employers, either explicitly or by omission.
The report aims to shed light on issues disproportionately facing young workers, including the fact that many young people do not know their rights when it comes to minimum wage, penalty rates and overtime.
Everyone’s got a story about getting paid under the table or having to work a week of trial shifts for free, but when the data is compiled into stats like these, it becomes apparent that it’s a systemic problem much larger than just having a dodgy boss. Employers across industries are taking advantage of green workers to line their own pockets, clearly undeterred by the fact that they are breaking the law.
From nearly 1000 workers surveyed, Young Workers Centre found that migrant workers cop much lower illegal pay rates than others. They also found that workers paid under minimum wage are losing an average of $3.12 per hour, or $59.02 per week.
While three-quarters of those surveyed said they worked “unsociable hours”, i.e. weekends, nights and public holidays, less than half said they receive penalty rates for that work.
One in five said they had worked unpaid trials, half said they’ve had to work early or late without getting paid, and four out of 10 have worked cash in hand, leaving them without legal safety nets like leave, workers comp or superannuation.
The report also features case studies, including Jasmin, who worked at a café owned by a direct relative of Scrooge McDuck:
“The cafe charged customers a public holiday surcharge that they didn’t pass on to us. Customers would come in and say ‘oh you must be making a packet today.’ A customer told me how much I was supposed to be paid for public holidays.”“The thing that kind of twigged it for me was seeing how much money the cafe was making every day and knowing how little we were paid. Seeing the boss rock up in his expensive car […] while all the people I work with are struggling to make ends meet and juggling multiple jobs – it’s just not fair.”
And Sofia, who was monstrously underpaid while working in Melbourne as an international student:
“I had $5 per hour when it was 2009 [as] a shop assistant in the CBD.“When I was on a student visa the visa says you can work legally here for 20 hours a week. The thing is most places don’t want to hire you. They’re like ‘oh international students, we don’t want the trouble, we don’t want the paperwork,’ despite how many times you tell them ‘hey, this visa says I can work legally here.’“So in the end the only jobs you normally get when you’re an international student is waitressing or like sales assistant but in those dodgy shops and they give you really bad rates.”
Young Workers Centre round off the report with a series of extremely sensible recommendations, including that high school curriculums include workplace rights and safety training so that school leavers entering the workforce are harder for evil bastards to dupe; that the law on payslips be changed so employers have to indicate what award/agreement and level they’re paying you under; and that repercussions for breaking wage laws be given some actual heft, including criminal sanctions.
They’ve also suggested an online platform and public database where employers can report wage violations and look up potential employers to see if they’ve done any shoddy business in the past.
Until then, familiarise yourself with the award rates for your industry, and while you’re there, have a poke around the Fair Work website. Then at least if someone tries to steal your wages, you can have the unique satisfaction of sicking the ombudsman on ’em.
Source: Young Workers Centre.
Image: Black Books.
