One in four nail salons were found to be non-compliant with state employment laws in a proactive compliance audit undertaken by industrial inspectors at Private Sector Labour Relations.  

The major breach identified was underpayment of wages, with some salons paying rates of pay below the State minimum wage.  A total of $50,441.68 was recovered from the 26 non-compliant nail salons for 55 employees.

In one example, a nail salon owner had been paying three adult casual employees a flat daily rate of $120 to $170 per day, which equated to $15 to $20 per hour based on the number of hours the employees had worked.  At the time the minimum casual adult rate of pay was $22.95 per hour.  One employee had been underpaid a total of $7,712; the highest underpayment recovered for a single employee over the campaign.

A graphic snapshot of the campaign is below and the full campaign results are in the Evaluation report - Employment obligations in nail salons proactive compliance campaign