On a student visa? What the A$26.44 minimum wage means for your payslip

A$26.44 an hour. That has been Australia’s national minimum wage since 1 July, and there is no separate international student minimum wage. A student visa holder from Hyderabad and a colleague born in Hobart, doing the same job in the same workplace, are owed the same minimum rate. For a casual on the national minimum, the floor is A$33.05 an hour once the 25 per cent casual loading is counted.

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

A 4.75 per cent rise for awards, and a lower rate for new starters

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

The award system keeps an exception for new starters. A special entry-level rate can apply for a limited first period in a job, no longer than six months, and its floor is now 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, and higher classifications sit above it. Workers under 21 may be on junior rates, a percentage of the adult rate.

Equal rights, and a cap of 48 hours a fortnight

Austrade’s Study Australia site puts the principle in one sentence: “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 a fortnight while the course is in session. For this purpose the Migration Regulations define a fortnight as 14 days starting on a Monday. During scheduled course breaks there is no cap. 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.

Going over the cap is a visa matter, and the pay owed for the hours still stands. 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

Under section 536 of the Fair Work Act, an employer must issue a payslip within one working day of paying wages. For someone paid by the hour, 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, along with 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 comes to A$1,586.40. The Ombudsman has updated its Pay Calculator to help employers and employees work out the new rates. A correct payslip does not settle everything if the employer unreasonably demands payment in exchange for the job. “Cashback schemes are also illegal,” the Ombudsman states.

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 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. The Minister is not to cancel a visa over a breach of such a condition where a certifying body has issued a certificate about workplace exploitation connected to the breach. 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 that connection and that the worker will keep to the visa’s purpose. The explanatory statement for the 2024 change gives the cap on student work hours as an example of such a condition, and the Ombudsman is a certifying government agency. 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.

Employers carry their own risk. Since 1 January 2025, intentionally underpaying an employee has been a criminal offence under section 327A of the Fair Work Act, punishable by up to 10 years in prison for an individual. In 2024-25 the Ombudsman recovered A$358 million in total for more than 249,000 underpaid workers. The same year it 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.

The visa decides how many hours a student may work. It has no say over the rate, which for a casual on the national minimum starts at A$33.05 an hour, whichever passport the worker carries.