A staggering proportion of young workers are being exploited by employers who are underpaying, removing hours from timesheets, not providing annual leave, and even forcing staff to return pay.

The Melbourne Law School today released its Fair Day’s Work report, which found an “alarming” number of Australians aged 18-30 are being mistreated in the workplace.

According to the report, 33 per cent of young workers are being underpaid, receiving just $15 per hour or less – well adrift of the minimum wage, which is currently $24.95 an hour.

Of the 2814 workers aged between 18 and 30 who were surveyed, about a quarter said they weren’t paid superannuation, nearly 38 per cent weren’t allowed to take the breaks they were entitled to, and 35 had the hours they logged on their timesheets reduced.

Just under 10 per cent said they were given food or other products instead of receiving monetary pay, and 8 per cent said their employer forced them to return some or all of their pay.

“Underpayment remains one of the most pervasive issues confronting Australian labour law. In this context, young persons are a group especially vulnerable to workplace exploitation,” authors Professor John Howe and Tom Dillon wrote.

“Young workers’ lack of knowledge of their entitlements, low rates of union membership, precarious employment arrangements and limited leverage to negotiate working conditions each contribute to their susceptibility to mistreatment.”

They found younger workers are reluctant to take their cases to official watchdogs, even though those who did go to the Fair Work Commission or Ombudsman had broadly positive experiences.

The report also laid bare that non-binary people tend to face far more exploitation than men and women, while having a disability, not having permanent residency, and speaking English as a secondary language also increased workers’ risks.

“Solutions to these challenges will not easily be identified,” the authors wrote.

“This is especially true of issues tied to sex, gender, race, social origin and citizenship.

“Adverse treatment connected with these grounds does not occur in a vacuum; it can rarely be addressed through the lens of any one lone characteristic.

“Additionally, enforcement mechanisms in the field of discrimination are notoriously deficient.”

The report did, however, include six recommendations for reform, ranging from stronger compliance measures in underperforming industries to better regulation and exploring whether digital tools could be created to help combat workplace exploitation.