The Australian national minimum wage is currently 18.29 dollars per hour, which is around 695 dollars per week, before tax. Mark Lee, the director of media for the Fair Work Ombudsman, explains that several factors can mean you should be paid more.
"Many people will be entitled to a higher wage than that, depending on the type of work they're employed to do and the hours they work."
If you're a casual worker, you should be paid above the minimum wage because of casual loading of 25%.
The trade-off for that as a casual worker is that you don't get things like paid annual leave or long service leave entitlements.
If you work weekends, public holidays or at nigh time, you should also be paid more.
Penalty rates apply to anybody who is working on a Sunday, or a weekend or a public holiday. But they can also be allowances for people who conduct work at irregular hours.
If you think you might not be paid the right amount or just want to double check, the Fair Work Ombudsman has a calculator and people to assist you.
Laurie Berg is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology Sydney. Last year, she conducted a survey with a colleague about wage theft. The findings are worrying for international students and backpackers.
It finds that one in three international students was paid about half of the legal minimum wage, and a substantial number were working in condition that could amount to criminal forced labour. The research showed that most of the students and backpackers knew about the minimum wage, but they could see their peers being underpaid so they didn't see much chance of getting a better paying job.
While several industries were affected, some were worse than others.
Berg says she was surprised to see that most nationalities of backpackers and international students were experiencing underpayment.
"Workers from Asian countries, including China, Taiwan, and Vietnam were receiving lower wage rates than those from North America, Ireland and the UK."
While there still need to be some work done by the government and business to fix the situation, Mark Lee says that the Fair Work Ombudsman has measures in place to facilitate denunciation. "We have a translation service; it's free and available as well. Our website is also available in 40 different languages and we have an anonymous tip-off function tool as well. We understand that some people might be reluctant to reveal their identities so we've developed this online tool on our website fairwork.gov.au where people can go and provide us with information about what's happening to them without disclosing their identity."
And if you're worried about getting in trouble or having your visa cancelled by your employer, Mark Lee says the Fair Work Ombudsman will make sure it won't happen.
To find out if you're getting the wage that you're entitled to or to make a complaint, visit the Fair Work Ombudsman's website at fairwork.gov.au or call 13 13 94.
