Recovered back-pay also reached $453 million in the last financial year
Anonymous tip-offs to the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) reached a record high last year, according to the workplace regulator, as recovered funds for underpaid workers also went up.
The FWO's 2025-26 annual report showed a record 31,596 anonymous tip-offs, up 23% from the equivalent reports made in 2024-25.
Anonymous tip-offs can be made through the FWO's website. They allow Australians to flag potential wrongdoing by employers to the national workplace regulator.
"Anonymous reports help us identify emerging issues, detect patterns, and target education, engagement and compliance activities where they're needed most," said Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth, as she applauded the workplace participants.
Filing anonymous reports with the FWO will require the employer's name, its address, and the industry it is in, among other information. It does not, however, include the individual's or anyone else's tax file number.
Overall back-payments to underpaid staff
Meanwhile, the FWO's annual report also showed that more than 181,000 workers received a total of $453 million in underpaid wages in the last financial year.
This is an increase of about $95 million from the year prior, and brings the total back-payments for Australian workers across the last six financial years to nearly $2.5 billion.
The FWO also had 15 Enforceable Undertakings (EUs) with employers, who back-paid an overall $106.6 million in wages and entitlements, including superannuation and interest.
Large corporates made up $217.3 million of overall back-payments in 2025-26, according to the regulator, an amount paid to over 110,000 workers.
Booth said the FWO expects all employers, including large corporates, to put "high priority" on complying with workplace laws.
"We offer a wealth of free resources and information to assist voluntary compliance, while also holding employers to account when they are not meeting their obligations to their employees," she added.
By sector, the FWO recovered over $5.6 million for 3,538 workers and commenced 16 litigations in the fast food, restaurants and cafes sector, a priority area for the regulator.
It also recovered over $6.8 million for 932 workers in the building and construction sector, another priority area. The FWO said it commenced 14 litigations in the sector.
In the aged care sector, two major aged care providers entered into an EU with the FWO, delivering more than $16 million of back-payments to employees who had been underpaid for years.
FWO's litigations and penalties issued
Overall, the FWO commenced a total of 60 litigations and secured $2.3 million in penalties across Australia for 2025-26. It also issued 1,392 Compliance Notices, which helped recover more than $33 million for over 17,000 workers.
It also handed out 791 Infringement Notices across all sectors, which warned employers to get their payslip and record-keeping obligations in order or face the consequences.
"We continue to target the root causes of non-compliance and focus our efforts where they can have the greatest impact, with our strategic enforcement model promoting long-term behavioural change, improved workplace compliance, and higher-level enforcement if deliberate, serious and systemic issues are found," Booth said.
"The Fair Work Ombudsman is also continuing to expand our collaborations with fellow regulators as well as employer organisations and unions – all stakeholders have a crucial role to play in ensuring a culture of compliance with workplace laws."
