A third of young workers are exploited, with many never receiving entitlements

15 July 2025
ABC News.

Jarod Graham says he is owed nearly $10,000 in unpaid superannuation from his former employer People Come First Incorporated. 

In short:   
A third of workers under 30 are experiencing workplace exploitation, according to a study by Melbourne Law School.

Young workers are less likely to speak up, with only a third going to unions or agencies, such as the Fair Work Ombudsman, for help.

Experts and advocates say often these workers don't see their entitlements, and that more is needed to protect young workers.


When Jarod Graham left school, he worked for a company which, he says, didn't pay him his superannuation for two years.

The then-19-year-old says he is owed almost $10,000 from his old employer, People Come First Incorporated, a former NDIS provider in South Australia.

He says it wasn't until he started working in a new job that he realised none of his super entitlements had been paid.

"For someone so young who is trying to get into full time work, get some experience behind them ... it sort of was a bit of a kick to the guts that the hard work we did over the last two years was not really valued."
A third of young workers are underpaid by employers, according to a new study by Melbourne Law School.

The study found that 38 per cent had experienced underpayment, that they were aware of, and nearly 18 per cent had not been paid for all work completed.   

It also found 36 per cent had been forbidden to take entitled breaks, and 24 per cent had not been paid compulsory super.

The study's lead Professor John Howe says exploitation among workers below 30 is "multifaceted".

Man with glasses looks at his computer in front of a pile of papers on his desk.
Professor John Howe from Melbourne Law School says the exploitation of young people in the workforce is multifaceted.

"There are so many different ways that young workers are being denied their rights and their entitlements," he says.

Professor Howe says young workers are vulnerable because they are less likely to speak up.

"They're worried about complaining about their job for fear of losing it. So they might not be aware of their rights, or young workers may be aware of their rights but don't want to say anything about them."

ATO unable to help
When Mr Graham found out he hadn't been paid his superannuation, he contacted the ATO, who encouraged him to reach out to his former boss.

But he says his former boss, Paul Tilbury, blocked him on social media, with the business no longer in operation.

Tilbury has since been jailed for NDIS fraud, committed while he was CEO of the provider and had control of its bank accounts.

Analysis from the Super Members Council shows that in 2022-23, 3.3 million Australians missed out on $5.7 billion in super entitlements

That's up $600 million on the previous year.

Mr Graham says he submitted a query through the ATO portal and was sent a letter in May 2023 confirming he is owed nearly $10,000 in unpaid super entitlements.

A photo of Jarod Graham's ATO letter on his ipad.
Jarod Graham spoke with the ATO in 2023, and was told he is owed almost $10,000 of superannuation, but says he hasn't heard anything else.

He then says after calling multiple times and contacting his local MP, the ATO called him at the end of 2023.

"They were very empathetic on the phone and you could tell they understood the situation I was in but unfortunately they were not able to give me any sort of information."
In a statement to the ABC, a spokesperson for the ATO says: "the ATO cannot comment on the tax affairs of any individual due to our statutory confidentiality obligations.

"The ATO aims to collect unpaid superannuation guarantee charges owed by employers, however there are situations where it can be harder for the ATO to recover unpaid superannuation, including if an employer is bankrupt, in liquidation, under administration or deregistered."

Yolanda Robson is the director of the Young Workers Centre in Victoria, an organisation that provides free legal support and advice for any workers in Victoria under 30.

Woman with First Nations flag on her shirt stands in front of an orange sign that says 'Young Workers Fight Back'.
Yolanda Robson is the Director of the Young Workers Centre in Victoria and says her organisation works with thousands of young adults who have been exploited.

She says her organisation has worked with thousands of young workers across Victoria who have experienced exploitation.

“We are hearing it every day, we know what the issues are … young people always have that intuition to know that they’re being taken advantage of, but they just don’t have the tools or the safety net or the power to speak up.”

She says in many cases, workers don't end up seeing their unpaid entitlements.

"Within industries like retail, hospitality and the apprenticeship system, kind of feels like a bit of a whack-a-mole situation where they’ll simply shut up shop and go into liquidation as soon as the rubber hits the road or we reach the pointy end and they’re actually held accountable," she says.

whiteknight wrote on Jul 16^th, 2025 at 1:59pm:



Why aren't those employers in jail?

Well if they are peanut 🥜 workers from India, East Asia and Arab lands, then besides them coming here in hordes promoting themselves as cheap mass production labour.
I say, Aussie employers should indeed rip them off and pay them peanuts.
Nothing worse than some peanut 🥜 workers getting the same high pay as better workers. I slaved away in front of furnaces, lifting 80kg chunks of steel back onto joggers, while dimwit peanut workers from Asia and India got paid the same for doing menial pleb jobs with the time to sit on their arses and play with their phones.

About a third reported being paid as little as $15 an hour, well below the national minimum wage of $24.95 an hour. But Howe worried the true scale of underpayments could be greater.