PART 2 - PARTICIPANT DEMOGRAPHICS AND LOWEST PAID JOB IN 2023-24
Part 2 — PARTICIPANT DEMOGRAPHICS AND LOWEST PAID JOB IN 2023-24
A Profile of the 8,370 Participants who Worked in 2023-24 and their Lowest Paid Jobs During that Time
We received 9,963 valid responses from participants who had worked in Australia on a temporary visa at any time. This report addresses the experiences of the 8,370 participants (84% of all participants) who worked in Australia on a temporary visa during the 18 months prior to the survey. It focuses on their lowest paid job during that period.
Choosing one specific job allows us to analyse the correlations between different experiences and factors within the same job. A focus on migrants’ lowest paid job sheds light on some of the poorest working conditions for temporary migrants in the post-COVID labour market and provides an opportunity to analyse the features of those poorly paid jobs and the factors that may coincide with underpayment. Some migrants may move on from these jobs to somewhat better jobs. However, it is likely the precarious and underpaid jobs that are the subject of this report do not then disappear – they are simply filled by other temporary migrants.
The survey also contained other sections that related to participants’ work experiences on a temporary visa in any job during any period in Australia. These will form the basis of subsequent reports.
"When someone comes on a temporary visa. There is so much pressure on them. Everything is new, new system, new language, different culture, finding accommodation and high rental expenses needed from day one. Studies and settling in. So requirement of job from the first day is very important otherwise you can't survive. So, potentially what happens is someone in this situation accepts anything that is being offered because of expenses and need of money. That is where some employers come and exploit this situation and pay very less and sometimes make people work more than they are allowed to. When someone finds a better job with better pay and better work environment they immediately leave. And that employer then hire again someone new in the country and exploit them."
— Male international student from Pakistan, 28, in QueenslandParticipants’ lowest paid job on a temporary visa in 2023-24
Participants who worked on a temporary visa in 2023-24 were asked ‘What was your lowest paid job’? We did not ask about the nature or size of the employer, or whether the employer was a labour hire provider, because we believed these would be difficult for some participants to accurately answer and the data could be unreliable.[i]
Participants’ lowest paid job in 2023-24 (n= 8,276)
Participants’ demographics and visa in their lowest paid job in 2023-24
The demographic profile of the 8,370 participants who worked in 2023-24, and whose responses form the basis of this report, is set out at Appendix 1.
Participants were located across all states and territories when working in their lowest paid job in 2023-24. The majority (6,365 participants; 84%) were located in major cities. Around one in eight (975 participants; 13%) were located in Inner Regional Australia. The remaining 263 participants (3%) were located in Outer Regional, Remote or Very Remote Australia.
Participants were nationals of 140 countries, with the largest cohorts from India (16%), China (11%) and Nepal (9%).
A majority had arrived in Australia within 18 months of the survey, including one in five (19%) who were in their first six months in Australia. Over three quarters had been in Australia for 2.5 years or less at the time of the survey.
Participants were required to be at least 18 years old in order to participate in the survey. Thirty-five percent of participants were aged between 23 and 27. About a quarter were aged 18-22 (23%) and a further two-fifths were aged 28 years or older (42%).
Substantially more women (58%) than men (42%) participated in the survey.
Four in five participants (80%, 6,627) held a student visa when working in their lowest paid job in 2023-24. This reflects a robust sample that is broadly representative of current student visa holders in Australia at the time of the survey. It was impossible for us to randomly sample this group as it is not known which or precisely how many international students have worked in Australia and we were not able to reach all international students. However, our systematic outreach through 27 education providers across Australia who directly disseminated the survey to international students and many more that passively advertised it, as well as international student groups and through social media and online student publications, was comprehensive.
Among non-student visa holders, the largest cohorts were Temporary Graduate (subclass 485) (4%, 334), Working Holiday (417/462) (3%, 270), skilled visas (1%, 104), and bridging visas (1%, 105). A further 2% were on a range of other visa classes and for 8% their visa in their lowest paid job in 2023-24 was unknown. There were 155 secondary visa holders.
The heavy weighting towards international students makes it difficult to generalise to all categories of visa holders. The non-student part of the cohort is not necessarily representative of the broader population of people who work while holding a temporary visa in Australia. Nevertheless, and given the challenges in collecting data from this diverse group workers, the findings in this report are illustrative of the experiences of many temporary migrants who were working in Australia up to and including 2024.
References
[i] Although 8,370 participants responded that they had worked on a temporary visa in Australia in the 18 months prior to the survey, 8,276 participants provided a response to the next question, 'What was that job?'.