International student minimum wage: A$26.44 and 48 hours a fortnight

Two people do the same job in the same workplace: one a student visa holder from Hyderabad, the other born in Hobart. They are owed the same minimum rate. There is no separate international student minimum wage, and since 1 July 2026 the national minimum wage has been A$26.44 an hour. A casual on that minimum must receive at least A$33.05 an hour, including the 25 per cent casual loading.

Home Affairs counted 564,029 student visa holders in Australia on 31 August 2026. Indian citizens were the second-largest group at 79,674, behind China’s 125,583 and ahead of Nepal’s 54,012. The totals include partners and children who hold the visa as dependants. At 31 December 2025 India was ahead, 88,306 to China’s 62,771, although the Indian count was 13.5 per cent lower than a year earlier.

A 4.75 per cent award rise, and an entry-level floor of A$25.74

The Fair Work Commission announced the increase on 2 June. Its decision lifted the national minimum to A$1,004.90 for a 38-hour week and modern award rates by 4.75 per cent, with an extra rise at the two lowest pay levels. The Commission cited a Reserve Bank forecast of 4.8 per cent headline inflation for the year to June 2026, slightly above the general award increase. The new rates applied from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July.

Some workers can lawfully be paid less than A$26.44. A special entry-level rate can apply for the first six months or less of a job, with a floor of A$25.74 an hour, or A$978.10 a week. That is A$0.70 an hour below the national minimum. For ongoing work the lowest award rate is A$26.44. Workers under 21 may be on junior rates, a percentage of the adult rate.

Condition 8105 caps work at 48 hours a fortnight

Austrade’s Study Australia site states the principle: “International students have the same workplace rights and protections as other workers in Australia.” What the visa limits is hours. Condition 8105, which applies to every student holding a Student visa (subclass 500), allows up to 48 hours of work in any fortnight, counted from a Monday, while the course is in session. Before the course starts, it bars all work, unless the student applied while holding a visa that allowed work.

The cap lifts during scheduled course breaks. Work listed as a course requirement on the Commonwealth register of courses for overseas students is exempt, and so are research master’s and doctoral students once their course has begun.

Working past the cap breaches a visa condition, and the wages for those hours are still owed. The Fair Work Ombudsman says migrant workers keep their workplace entitlements whatever their migration status, while noting there may still be consequences under the Migration Act.

What the international student minimum wage looks like on a payslip

Section 536 of the Fair Work Act requires an employer to issue a payslip within one working day of paying wages. For hourly pay, the Ombudsman says, it must show the ordinary hourly rate, the hours worked at that rate and the total for them. Loadings, allowances and penalty rates that can be separated out belong on it too, as do gross and net pay, each deduction, and any superannuation contributions with the fund they go to.

At the national minimum casual rate, 20 hours comes to A$661 before tax and a full 48-hour fortnight to A$1,586.40. A correct payslip does not settle everything. The Ombudsman defines a cashback scheme as one where an employer unreasonably requires someone to pay them in exchange for a job, and states: “Cashback schemes are also illegal.”

A visa no employer can cancel

Home Affairs tells visa holders: “employers cannot cancel your visa, even if you have breached your visa conditions.” Only the department, including the Australian Border Force, holds that power. The Ombudsman tells international students that asking it for help will not cost them their visa. Its line is 13 13 94, and callers can get a free interpreter by ringing 13 14 50 first.

Since 1 July 2024 a pilot written into the Migration Regulations has gone further. It covers most temporary visas with a condition “restricting the work that the visa holder may do”, short of a ban on all work, and the 2024 explanatory statement gives the student hours cap as an example. Where a certifying body has issued a certificate about workplace exploitation connected to a breach of such a condition, the Minister is not to cancel the visa over that breach. The Ombudsman is a certifying government agency.

The worker must also commit in writing to resolve the matter and follow the visa conditions from then on, and the Minister must be satisfied of the connection and that the worker will keep to the visa’s purpose. Home Affairs says the protection does not apply where there are other reasons to cancel, such as fraud, character or security, and that a Workplace Justice visa may allow a longer stay to resolve an exploitation claim.

Intentional underpayment became a federal crime on 1 January 2025

Under section 327A of the Fair Work Act, intentionally underpaying an employee is a criminal offence, punishable by up to 10 years in prison for an individual. In 2024-25 the Ombudsman recovered A$358 million for more than 249,000 underpaid workers. That year it also secured A$5.1 million in penalties against two companies and their directors, in litigation involving migrant workers who spoke limited English and were paid as little as A$10 an hour.

An hourly worker’s payslip sets the hours worked beside the rate paid for them. The visa limits the first to 48 a fortnight while the course is in session. It has no say over the second, which for a casual on the national minimum starts at A$33.05 an hour, whichever passport the worker carries.