Underpaying migrant workers exacerbated by coronavirus pandemic

COVID-19 has made the illegal underpayments worse, with unions finding thousands of job ads on the internet written in languages other than English.

Migrant workers often exploited by being paid below minimum wage rates. Source: SBS

Researchers from Unions New South Wales went online to find job ads targeting migrant workers.

They studied 3,000 ads written in Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Nepali, Spanish and Portuguese.

One ad they found written in Vietnamese was looking to hire a nail technician for just $10 an hour.

Almost 90 per cent of the jobs ads that mentioned a wage were offering an illegal pay rate.