Migrants in Australia less than five years are twice as likely to be underpaid as other employees.
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Articles on wage theft
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Federal Labor made an election promise to criminalise wage theft. But there are better reforms more urgently needed.
With the government’s Draft Tourism Transformation Plan now out for consultation, the hospitality industry has an opportunity to clean up long-standing concerns over wages and conditions for workers.
Reports of big university budget surpluses appear to undermine calls for their federal funding to increase. But a closer look at how the surpluses were achieved reveals why change is needed.
The problem of insecure employment for academics came to a head during the pandemic. The neglect of this issue is eroding our intellectual capital along with education and employment opportunities.
Exploitation flourishes because regulators do not routinely detect or punish labour law noncompliance.
Australia’s Fair Work Commission has struck out a legal loophole allowing employers to pay farm workers exploitative piecemeal rates.
More than a dozen Australian universities have been publicly accused of underpaying staff. Some have paid millions in backpay after audits. And a big factor in wage theft is the rise of casualisation.
Research suggests harsher civil or criminal penalties will not automatically lead to greater compliance by employers with workplace laws.
High-end restaurant Dinner by Heston Blumenthal has allegedly underpaid staff by $4 million. Our research finds wage theft is accepted as the industry norm.
Employers are blaming underpaying employees on the the complexity of industrial awards. They should blame themselves.
Underpaying workers has become rampant in Australia.
Immigration has featured as an issue in every Australian election since 2001. But the numbers often tell a different story from the political posturing.
As many as half of all temporary migrant workers are being underpaid. After a two-year inquiry, the Migrant Workers’ Taskforce has provided a blueprint to do something about it.
Hundreds of court cases show that companies are using features of timekeeping software to shortchange workers, a few minutes at a time.
The court narrowly ruled that employees who sign arbitration agreements can’t bring class action suits over unpaid wages.
Wage theft and exploitation are rampant in certain industries. Certifying those that commit to fair work conditions could be key to fixing the problem.
Top contributors
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Associate Professor in Political Economy, University of Sydney
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Professor of management, EMLV, Paris and Adjunct Fellow, University of Technology Sydney, University of Technology Sydney
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Associate Professor UTS Centre for Business and Social Innovation, University of Technology Sydney
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Professor of Social Economics, UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney
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Associate Professor, University of Notre Dame Australia
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Program Director, Economic Policy, Grattan Institute
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Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney
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Senior Lecturer in Law, The University of Melbourne
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Venable Professor of Law, University of Baltimore
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Associate Professor of Law, University of Oregon
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Deputy Director, Migration and Labour Markets, Grattan Institute
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Associate Professor in Education, University of Newcastle
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Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney
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Professor of Management, Auckland University of Technology
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Research Associate, University of Adelaide
