More than one in three young people have experienced being ripped off by employers, and most of them did not seek redress, according to a new study from Melbourne Law School.
The survey of 2814 workers under 30 found that:
- 33% had been paid $15 per hour or less (the current federal minimum wage is $24.95 per hour)
- 17.9% had not been paid for all work completed
- 9.5% had been given food or products instead of being paid in money
- 8% had been forced to return some or all of their pay to employer
"Wage exploitation is rife among employers who hire young people," study lead Professor John Howe said.
"Young people don't have much industrial knowledge or experience, so are easy to take advantage of. They are also unlikely to challenge an employer, as many of them are in insecure work and they worry about losing their jobs."
His research, part of the Fair Day's Work project at Melbourne Law School, found that there were many other ways in which employers exploited young staff:
- 60% had had to pay for work-related items or activities, such as uniforms, protective equipment, training or car fuel
- 36% had been forbidden to take entitled breaks
- 34% were not paid for work during a trial period
- 24% had not been paid compulsory super
"It was also reported that employers often cooked the books, presumably to avoid fair wage rates and the Tax Office," Professor Howe said.
"Twenty-one percent of the young people said they were sometimes paid off the books, and 12 per cent were always paid off the books. Eight per cent never even received a payslip."
Only a third had gone to unions or agencies, such as the Fair Work Ombudsman, for help.
The Fair Days Work project investigates how data science and technology could be used to improve employer compliance with the law.
"The Federal Government recently made intentional underpayment of workers a criminal offence and named it for what it is, wage theft," Professor Howe said.
"We call on the Federal Government to increase funding for compliance. But underpayment is hard to detect, and increasing the likelihood of detection is more likely to deter employers.
"Our Fair Days' Work project has three elements that help detect wage theft: a wage theft database to collect information, a web portal to give young people the information they need, and a prediction tool to assess which young workers are at risk of exploitation and underpayment."
Professor Howe talks about the issue further in Tuesday's episode of the podcast JUSTICE, with Jon Faine, available on Apple and Spotify.
