'It's rife': third of young workers report wage theft
The 22-year-old has worked for multiple employers who either didn't pay her correctly, forced her to work through legally mandated breaks or didn't pass on deducted superannuation to her fund.
"Wage theft is absolutely rife, for sure," Ms McDowall told AAP.
"I know more people my age who have spent any significant amount of time in hospitality that have had wages lost than haven't."
Ms McDowall is among more than one in three young workers who report being ripped off, according to University of Melbourne research released on Tuesday.
Two-thirds were forced to pay for work-related items such as uniforms or protective equipment, almost one-third were not paid compulsory super and more than one-third were banned from taking entitled breaks.
One in five said they had been paid off the books, almost 10 per cent were paid in food or products and eight per cent said they never received a pay slip.
"The extent of all the different ways that people are being denied their entitlements or employers are breaking the law shocked me," study lead John Howe said.
"The majority of employers are doing the right thing, but there's obviously a significant proportion of employers cutting corners with their young workers wherever they can."
About one-third reported being paid as little as $15 a hour, well below the national minimum wage of $24.95 per hour, but Professor Howe worries the true scale of underpayments could be greater.
"It could be a lot higher, because a lot of workers weren't sure if they were being underpaid," he said.
"Vulnerable workers are worried about raising complaints or asking questions about their entitlements because they don't want to jeopardise their job."
Researchers expected to find exploitation among hospitality workers but also identified workers being ripped off in utilities industries such as gas and water, agriculture, forestry and even unionised workforces, including mining.
Some 2814 workers younger than 30 took part in the survey conducted by the Melbourne Law School as part of its Fair Day's Work project.
Only one in three reported seeking help from a union or body such as the Fair Work Ombudsman, with Prof Howe recalling many expressed helplessness over their situation.
Now a women's organiser for Trades Hall, Ms McDowall believes her experiences fighting for her minimum entitlements were vital in gaining the skills she needs in her new career.
She encouraged anyone to stick up for themselves, pointing to the Fair Work Wage Calculator and Young Workers Centre as great places to start.
"It's so important that we are teaching young people how to determine what their pay should be and how to teach people how to have those conversations," she said.
Cafe worker Mia McDowall was initially shocked to discover she'd been underpaid by thousands of dollars but soon learnt it's an experience all too common in the hospitality industry.
The 22-year-old has worked for multiple employers who either didn't pay her correctly, forced her to work through legally mandated breaks or didn't pass on deducted superannuation to her fund.
"Wage theft is absolutely rife, for sure," Ms McDowall told AAP.
"I know more people my age who have spent any significant amount of time in hospitality that have had wages lost than haven't."
Ms McDowall is among more than one in three young workers who report being ripped off, according to University of Melbourne research released on Tuesday.
Two-thirds were forced to pay for work-related items such as uniforms or protective equipment, almost one-third were not paid compulsory super and more than one-third were banned from taking entitled breaks.
One in five said they had been paid off the books, almost 10 per cent were paid in food or products and eight per cent said they never received a pay slip.
"The extent of all the different ways that people are being denied their entitlements or employers are breaking the law shocked me," study lead John Howe said.
"The majority of employers are doing the right thing, but there's obviously a significant proportion of employers cutting corners with their young workers wherever they can."
About one-third reported being paid as little as $15 a hour, well below the national minimum wage of $24.95 per hour, but Professor Howe worries the true scale of underpayments could be greater.
"It could be a lot higher, because a lot of workers weren't sure if they were being underpaid," he said.
"Vulnerable workers are worried about raising complaints or asking questions about their entitlements because they don't want to jeopardise their job."
Researchers expected to find exploitation among hospitality workers but also identified workers being ripped off in utilities industries such as gas and water, agriculture, forestry and even unionised workforces, including mining.
Some 2814 workers younger than 30 took part in the survey conducted by the Melbourne Law School as part of its Fair Day's Work project.
Only one in three reported seeking help from a union or body such as the Fair Work Ombudsman, with Prof Howe recalling many expressed helplessness over their situation.
Now a women's organiser for Trades Hall, Ms McDowall believes her experiences fighting for her minimum entitlements were vital in gaining the skills she needs in her new career.
She encouraged anyone to stick up for themselves, pointing to the Fair Work Wage Calculator and Young Workers Centre as great places to start.
"It's so important that we are teaching young people how to determine what their pay should be and how to teach people how to have those conversations," she said.
Cafe worker Mia McDowall was initially shocked to discover she'd been underpaid by thousands of dollars but soon learnt it's an experience all too common in the hospitality industry.
The 22-year-old has worked for multiple employers who either didn't pay her correctly, forced her to work through legally mandated breaks or didn't pass on deducted superannuation to her fund.
"Wage theft is absolutely rife, for sure," Ms McDowall told AAP.
"I know more people my age who have spent any significant amount of time in hospitality that have had wages lost than haven't."
Ms McDowall is among more than one in three young workers who report being ripped off, according to University of Melbourne research released on Tuesday.
Two-thirds were forced to pay for work-related items such as uniforms or protective equipment, almost one-third were not paid compulsory super and more than one-third were banned from taking entitled breaks.
One in five said they had been paid off the books, almost 10 per cent were paid in food or products and eight per cent said they never received a pay slip.
"The extent of all the different ways that people are being denied their entitlements or employers are breaking the law shocked me," study lead John Howe said.
"The majority of employers are doing the right thing, but there's obviously a significant proportion of employers cutting corners with their young workers wherever they can."
About one-third reported being paid as little as $15 a hour, well below the national minimum wage of $24.95 per hour, but Professor Howe worries the true scale of underpayments could be greater.
"It could be a lot higher, because a lot of workers weren't sure if they were being underpaid," he said.
"Vulnerable workers are worried about raising complaints or asking questions about their entitlements because they don't want to jeopardise their job."
Researchers expected to find exploitation among hospitality workers but also identified workers being ripped off in utilities industries such as gas and water, agriculture, forestry and even unionised workforces, including mining.
Some 2814 workers younger than 30 took part in the survey conducted by the Melbourne Law School as part of its Fair Day's Work project.
Only one in three reported seeking help from a union or body such as the Fair Work Ombudsman, with Prof Howe recalling many expressed helplessness over their situation.
Now a women's organiser for Trades Hall, Ms McDowall believes her experiences fighting for her minimum entitlements were vital in gaining the skills she needs in her new career.
She encouraged anyone to stick up for themselves, pointing to the Fair Work Wage Calculator and Young Workers Centre as great places to start.
"It's so important that we are teaching young people how to determine what their pay should be and how to teach people how to have those conversations," she said.
Cafe worker Mia McDowall was initially shocked to discover she'd been underpaid by thousands of dollars but soon learnt it's an experience all too common in the hospitality industry.
The 22-year-old has worked for multiple employers who either didn't pay her correctly, forced her to work through legally mandated breaks or didn't pass on deducted superannuation to her fund.
"Wage theft is absolutely rife, for sure," Ms McDowall told AAP.
"I know more people my age who have spent any significant amount of time in hospitality that have had wages lost than haven't."
Ms McDowall is among more than one in three young workers who report being ripped off, according to University of Melbourne research released on Tuesday.
Two-thirds were forced to pay for work-related items such as uniforms or protective equipment, almost one-third were not paid compulsory super and more than one-third were banned from taking entitled breaks.
One in five said they had been paid off the books, almost 10 per cent were paid in food or products and eight per cent said they never received a pay slip.
"The extent of all the different ways that people are being denied their entitlements or employers are breaking the law shocked me," study lead John Howe said.
"The majority of employers are doing the right thing, but there's obviously a significant proportion of employers cutting corners with their young workers wherever they can."
About one-third reported being paid as little as $15 a hour, well below the national minimum wage of $24.95 per hour, but Professor Howe worries the true scale of underpayments could be greater.
"It could be a lot higher, because a lot of workers weren't sure if they were being underpaid," he said.
"Vulnerable workers are worried about raising complaints or asking questions about their entitlements because they don't want to jeopardise their job."
Researchers expected to find exploitation among hospitality workers but also identified workers being ripped off in utilities industries such as gas and water, agriculture, forestry and even unionised workforces, including mining.
Some 2814 workers younger than 30 took part in the survey conducted by the Melbourne Law School as part of its Fair Day's Work project.
Only one in three reported seeking help from a union or body such as the Fair Work Ombudsman, with Prof Howe recalling many expressed helplessness over their situation.
Now a women's organiser for Trades Hall, Ms McDowall believes her experiences fighting for her minimum entitlements were vital in gaining the skills she needs in her new career.
She encouraged anyone to stick up for themselves, pointing to the Fair Work Wage Calculator and Young Workers Centre as great places to start.
"It's so important that we are teaching young people how to determine what their pay should be and how to teach people how to have those conversations," she said.
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Is that real?" he said. "How am I going to know? They've got all that data." Mr Allison said he had lost some trust in Qantas in the wake of the hack. "It makes me very hesitant to give Qantas more information in the future. Is it going to get lost?" he said. As the scam risk grows, customers are being urged to remain alert to emails, text messages or phone calls if the sender purports to be from Qantas. "Regularly review your compromised accounts and other linked accounts for unusual activity," cybersecurity technology firm McAfee's Tyler McGee said. The identity of the group responsible for the attack remains a mystery, although multiple experts believe it is the work of Scattered Spider, a cabal of young cybercriminals living in the US and the UK. Qantas said it had set up extra cybersecurity measures to protect customer data. Scammers could have a direct route to devising targeted scams for millions of Qantas customers in coming months as the airline reveals exactly what personal data was exposed in a major cyber attack. Australia's largest airline on Wednesday disclosed details of the 5.7 million customer records impacted when a third-party system used by an offshore call centre was hacked. Of those, the names, email addresses and frequent flyer details of four million customers were exposed. The remaining 1.7 million customers had more data taken, including their names, email addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, personal or business addresses, gender and meal preferences. In total, about 10,000 meal preferences were accessed. A cybersecurity expert warned compromising such personal information was a "good starting point" for scammers to target individuals. "I see this as stage one of the continuous Qantas situation," RMIT University's Matthew Warren told AAP. Scam attempts would likely start with people impersonating Qantas staff in the weeks and months to come as criminals tried to gain financial or passport details, he said But the attempts could become more targeted from there, including business invoice scams, especially if the information was distributed widely on the dark web. Qantas maintains there is no evidence so far any stolen personal data has been released. Professor Warren said it was only a matter of time before the hackers published the data but they would likely try to hold Qantas to ransom first. "If the data is then sold on the dark net, you're then going to get other groups spending a lot more time trawling through the data and trying to identify possible ways to undertake scams," he said. Qantas has begun individually notifying almost six million customers which of their specific personal details have been exposed in the attack. The airline previously said a possible cybercriminal had contacted it about the hack, but would not confirm whether a ransom demand had been received. Australian Federal Police investigators are also probing the breach. Sydney-based customer Nick Allison received an email on Wednesday morning notifying him that his name, frequent flyer number and tier were exposed in the cyber raid. Mr Allison, who was also embroiled in the 2022 Optus and 2023 Dymocks hacks, is worried about a rise in phishing attempts as a result of his data being exposed. "Is it going to be every single email that I get sent for the rest of my life from Qantas? Is that a scam? Is that real?" he said. "How am I going to know? They've got all that data." Mr Allison said he had lost some trust in Qantas in the wake of the hack. "It makes me very hesitant to give Qantas more information in the future. Is it going to get lost?" he said. As the scam risk grows, customers are being urged to remain alert to emails, text messages or phone calls if the sender purports to be from Qantas. "Regularly review your compromised accounts and other linked accounts for unusual activity," cybersecurity technology firm McAfee's Tyler McGee said. The identity of the group responsible for the attack remains a mystery, although multiple experts believe it is the work of Scattered Spider, a cabal of young cybercriminals living in the US and the UK. Qantas said it had set up extra cybersecurity measures to protect customer data.
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13 hours ago
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'It's rife': One third of Australia's young workers report wage theft
Cafe worker Mia McDowall was initially shocked to discover she'd been underpaid by thousands of dollars but soon learnt it's an experience all too common in the hospitality industry. The 22-year-old has worked for multiple employers who either didn't pay her correctly, forced her to work through legally mandated breaks or didn't pass on deducted superannuation to her fund. "Wage theft is absolutely rife, for sure," McDowall told the Australian Associated Press. "I know more people my age who have spent any significant amount of time in hospitality that have had wages lost than haven't." McDowall is among more than one in three young workers who report being ripped off, according to University of Melbourne research released on Tuesday. Two-thirds were forced to pay for work-related items such as uniforms or protective equipment, almost one-third were not paid compulsory super and more than one-third were banned from taking entitled breaks. One in five said they had been paid off the books, almost 10 per cent were paid in food or products and eight per cent said they never received a pay slip. "The extent of all the different ways that people are being denied their entitlements or employers are breaking the law shocked me," study lead John Howe said. "The majority of employers are doing the right thing, but there's obviously a significant proportion of employers cutting corners with their young workers wherever they can." About one-third reported being paid as little as $15 a hour, well below the national minimum wage of $24.95 per hour, but Howe worries the true scale of underpayments could be greater. "It could be a lot higher, because a lot of workers weren't sure if they were being underpaid," he said. "Vulnerable workers are worried about raising complaints or asking questions about their entitlements because they don't want to jeopardise their job." Researchers expected to find exploitation among hospitality workers but also identified workers being ripped off in utilities industries such as gas and water, agriculture, forestry and even unionised workforces, including mining. Some 2,814 workers younger than 30 took part in the survey conducted by the Melbourne Law School as part of its Fair Day's Work project. Only one in three reported seeking help from a union or body such as the Fair Work Ombudsman, with Prof Howe recalling many expressed helplessness over their situation. Now a women's organiser for Trades Hall, McDowall believes her experiences fighting for her minimum entitlements were vital in gaining the skills she needs in her new career. She encouraged anyone to stick up for themselves, pointing to the Fair Work Wage Calculator and Young Workers Centre as great places to start. "It's so important that we are teaching young people how to determine what their pay should be and how to teach people how to have those conversations," she said.
