Migrant hospitality workers underpaid $3.18bn a year, study finds
Australia's hospitality industry has been singled out as a hotspot for wage theft, with new research revealing two-thirds of migrant workers are paid less than they're legally owed.
The findings, from a major study commissioned by the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department and reported by the ABC, estimate that international students alone are short-changed by around $3.18 billion annually. The report, co-authored by Associate Professor Bassina Farbenblum, founder of the Migrant Justice Institute, concluded the underpayment was "not by accident, and not by a few rogue employers."
One case highlighted by the ABC involved a Canberra hospitality worker, given the pseudonym Mai to protect her identity, who took her first job in Australia while studying at the Australian National University.
"At that time I was really happy because now I can live by myself, be more independent, not rely on my family and actually can afford the renting," Mai told the ABC.
That optimism soured once her employer began demanding short-notice shifts at all hours, paying a flat rate below the minimum wage, including on weekends. Mai told the ABC her recorded hours were frequently altered: "Even sometimes when I saw my check-in and check-out sheet it was often rounded down, and I mean that's not fair and quite sad." She added that despite the long hours, the pay failed to reflect the work:
"Everything was so hard to afford and even paying rent is now more difficult and you're actually working for a lot of hours but like your effort is not anywhere, it's not showing."
Fear of repercussions kept her silent.
According to Associate Professor Farbenblum, underpayment in hospitality and other sectors employing temporary visa holders is often a warning sign of broader exploitation, including confiscated passports and excessive, unbroken work hours.
"That the more that people were underpaid, the more likely they experienced conditions like having their passport confiscated or being made to work very long hours with no breaks, often two weeks in a row," she told the ABC, adding that in some cases there were "threats of harm or violence."
She said many operators exploit workers' visa insecurity to suppress complaints: "One of the things we see, particularly for migrant workers, is a threat to report the worker to immigration if they speak up or if they do anything. They're really fearful of losing their visa and they need to pay for food and pay their rent."
The report, based on responses from close to 10,000 migrant workers, also found that cash-in-hand payments are being phased out in favour of ABN misclassification that removes workers from formal employment records and shields employers from Fair Work Act scrutiny. More than a third of migrant workers are now engaged via ABN, over four times the rate in the general workforce, effectively sidestepping minimum pay and entitlement obligations through sham contracting arrangements.
The Department of Home Affairs introduced a new visa category in 2024 allowing exploited workers to remain in Australia for up to 12 months while pursuing a claim, alongside a Strengthening Reporting Protections Pilot designed to shield visa holders who report exploitation from visa cancellation. However, uptake figures for these protections remain unclear, with the department yet to respond to ABC questions on the matter.
Jonathan Jackson, 7th September 2026
