"International Students and Wage Theft in Australia", June 2020

[...] [T]he International Students and Wage Theft in Australia report reveals that [...] majority of international students are still subject to wage theft and poor employment conditions.

Key findings include:

• 77% were paid below the minimum casual hourly wage.
• 32% of Bachelor's degree students earned just half the minimum casual hourly wage or less ($12/hr or less).
• 26% of all international students earned half the minimum casual hourly wage or less — a figure unchanged since the 2016 National Temporary Migrant Work Survey.
• The overwhelming majority of students who were underpaid knew the minimum wage (86%), but 62% believed they were at fault for the underpayment and had broken the law by accepting below minimum wages.
• 91% of those with self-reported poor or fair English were paid below the minimum casual hourly wage, but underpayment was also experienced by 68% of those with self-reported good or very good English.
• Underpayment was as common among Masters students as it was among English language students.
• 38% reported that they did not seek information or help for a problem at work because they did not want 'problems that might affect my visa'.

The report recommends a new effective and accessible wage recovery mechanism, more effective government investigation and enforcement, removal of the 40-hour fortnightly work limitation on student visas [...], introduction of an absolute firewall preventing the Fair Work Ombudsman sharing a worker's information with Department of Home Affairs to alleviate fears of visa problems if migrant workers report exploitation to the regulator [...].

[The full report can be downloaded here.]