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. For example, if you're working an overnight shift or on the weekend or a public holiday, they'll often be penalty rates that will apply, or if you're working in the manufacturing industry or the restaurant industry, they'll be what we call a modern award that will prescribe the minimum rate relevant to your particular work,"
If you're a casual worker, you should be paid above the minimum wage because of casual loading.
"A casual worker will get 25% loading. So, for example, if you're a casual worker who is covered by the minimum wage of $18.29 per hour, you should get 25 per cent above that rate for your ordinary hours. 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.
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.
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.
"They're worried that if they come to us, something bad will happen to their visa or they may be sent away from Australia. We can give people assurance that we developed an agreement with the Department of Immigration that if somebody comes to us and talk to us about something happening in their workplace and they're cooperating with one of our investigations, we can make sure that they won't suffer any adverse effects to their visa status."
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.
