The featured image above pretty much summarises in one sentence your work rights and entitlements as an international student. Just like an ordinary Aussie worker, you’ve the right to receive at least the minimum wage in your job. If you’re employed as a casual worker you’ve the right to receive a casual loading pay on top of your minimum wage. If you’re working very early in the morning or late at night, or working on weekend, i.e., Saturday or Sunday, you’ve the right to be paid a penalty rate on top of your minimum wage. You’ve the right to get paid overtime pay when you work beyond certain number of hours in a day or days in a week. You have the right to take breaks while working.
To wit:
- Minimum wage
Just like any other Australian worker anywhere in Australia, international students on a subclass 500 visa are entitled to receive at least the minimum wage at work. The current Commonwealth-issued minimum rate in Australia is $19.49. This is the absolute minimum in any kind of job. In most jobs however, the minimum wage is more than this base rate depending on the award or agreement that covers the job. If you’re less than 21 years old you’re not entitled to the minimum wage. Instead you’re entitled to what is called Junior pay rates, or rates that are a percentage of the minimum wage as determined in the award or agreement that covers the job in a particular industry or company.
What is an award or agreement? Very simply an award is the terms and conditions of an employment such as wages and work conditions, etc., in a particular industry. Every industry has its own award. For example, there is an award for those working in the cleaning industry, an award for those working in the fast food industry, an award for those working in the hospitality industry, etc. An agreement is very much like an award except that it’s limited in scope and covers only those working in a particular company (as against an award that covers everybody working in an entire industry). For example, there may be an existing award for the fast food industry but McDonalds may have its own agreement that supersedes the award. Awards and agreements are binding legal agreements.
The Junior rates are indicated in every award or agreement. For example, in the fast food award, employees 20 years old are entitled to 90% of the minimum age of $21.41 or $19.27. For every year you’re younger than 21 the percentage to minimum wage drops by 10%. If a particular job is not covered by any award or agreement the government can provide what should be the Junior pay rates.
Three (3) other important things to know in relation to minimum wage-
- Casual loading – Employees in Australia can either be
– Regular or contractual full-time
– Regular or contractual part-time
– Casual
The difference between a regular and contractual is the employment tenure. Regulars are permanent employees while contractual employees are contracted to work for a limited period like a year or so. Aside from that they’re basically identical.
Full time employees typically work 38 hours a week with full entitlements like sick leave, annual leave, etc. Part time employees work less than full time hours a week but with the same entitlements. Casual employees, on the other hand, don’t have uniform hours of work in a week and are not entitled to paid sick or annual leave. But to compensate for this, casual workers are entitled to what is called Casual Loading; an additional pay, usually in terms of percentage of their wage, on top of the regular or minimum wage. The net effect is that casual workers may take home more pay for the same job than non-casual worker (who don’t get paid Casual Loading). But then if they don’t work they don’t get paid, and they can pretty much get fired at any moment. Most international students work on casual employment basis. The award or agreement that covers your job should have a clear provision on how much is your casual loading. Or you can use this Fair Work Ombudsman website tool to know your legal work entitlements like wages, casual loading, etc.
- Penalty rates – Working at night or very early morning, working on weekends or public holidays will attract additional pay on top of the regular or minimum wage. Every award or agreement should have clear provisions on the penalty rates that apply. Again, if your job is not covered by any award or agreement the government can determine it for you.
- Overtime rates – Again, your award or agreement should have clear provision on when you are entitled to an overtime pay. Basically, an overtime pay is triggered when you work beyond the hours (or days) that you should normally work in a day, or a week or a fortnight. For example, if you’re working in a fast food restaurant every hour you worked beyond 11 hours in a day, or beyond 38 hours in a week will attract an overtime rate pay.
Screenshot of the Fast Food Award interactive information tool in the Fair Work Ombudsman website.
Example: Robert is an international student working in a fast food restaurant. He’s 21 years old, and a level 1 casual employee (minimum wage). In one fortnight he worked 40 hours, which includes 12 hours working on one Sunday. How much should be his wages for that fortnight?
According to the Fast Food Industry Award as published in the Fair Work Commission website, Joe is entitled to:
- A minimum wage of $21.41 per hour
- A 25% casual loading pay, or $5.35 ($21.41×25%) per hour
- A 25% working-on-a-Sunday pay, or $5.35 ($21.41×25%) per hour
- An overtime pay of $37.47 (1hrx$21.41×175%)
Therefore, computing for his wages:
Minimum wage [40 hours X $21.41] $856.40
Casual loading [40 hours X $5.35] $214.00
Penalty rate [12 hours X $5.35] $ 64.20
Overtime pay $ 34.47
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Joe’s total wages for the fortnight $1,169.07
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- Work breaks, meals and leaves
As an international student on subclass 500 visa and working in Australia you are entitled to work breaks and meal breaks commonly enjoyed by all Australian workers. You are also entitled to take unpaid leave from work.
Let’s take the General Retail Industry Award for example. This award essentially covers jobs in retail industry, an industry where many international students find jobs. The award has the following provisions about breaks, as shown in the table below
We can see from the table above that working for more than 5 hours but less than 7 hours entitles you to have a 10-minute paid rest break and a 30-60 minutes unpaid meal break. Also, according to the award:
– Rest breaks are paid breaks, while meal breaks are unpaid breaks.
– The timing of rest break or meal break should provide a meaningful break for the employee during work hours and therefore 1) An employee cannot be required to take a break within one hour of commencing or ceasing of work, and 2) An employee cannot be required to take a rest break(s) combined with a meal break.
– No employee should be required to work for 5 hours without a break
– Employees should be granted 12 hours of break in-between shifts, otherwise they have to be paid double rate.
Example: Rose is an international student working at Woolworths (or Woolies). At one particular shift she worked for 6 hours. Rose took a rest break after working for two hours, and on her 4th hour she took a meal break. Her 10-minute rest break is paid, while her 30-minute meal break is unpaid. So, Rose spent a total of 6.5 hours at work to get paid for a 6-hour work. If Woolies would require Rose to report to work again the following day, they would need to allow 12 hours from the time she last clocked out to when she will clock-in again otherwise they will need to pay her double. In reality though this rarely happens as it’s simply inefficient for any business to pay a penalty like that. This is also why they hire plenty of casuals anyway, so they will have plenty of options, summon many available workers to work at any given time.
This may already be provided in your award or agreement but in case it’s not, according to Fair Work Commission casual workers are entitled to:
– 2 days unpaid carer’s leave and 2 days unpaid compassionate leave per occasion
– 5 days unpaid family and domestic violence leave (in a 12-month period)
– unpaid community service leave.
This is good, but in reality (with many employers, although not all) when you’re a causal worker and you’re unable to work, it’s actually quite easy to be excused from your roster. The reality is casual workers just call ahead of time when they are sick or has some emergency that prevents them from reporting to work. Also in reality, if you’re a casual worker and you have upcoming school work that will keep you busy and keep you from work you can actually give advance notice to your employer that you’re unable to work for a particular period. In reality, to many employers (not all) this is no big deal. The key is to be responsible and respectful about it by communicating your intentions early so appropriate arrangements can be made to avoid disruption in business operation.
Perhaps 90% of international students employed in Australia are on casual employment. Hence, the things we’ve discussed above generally concern casual workers. As a general rule however, whether you’re a regular or contractual or casual employee, whatever workplace rights an ordinary Australian worker or employee is entitled to, you as an international student on a subclass 500 visa working in Australia is also entitled to the same.
