-- Australian employers have faced mounting scrutiny over wage underpayment in recent years. The Fair Work Ombudsman reported recovering over A$500 million in unpaid wages in 2024, the highest figure since the agency’s inception. Major retailers, hospitality groups and financial institutions have paid multimillion-dollar settlements, prompting businesses to look for more immediate ways to monitor pay accuracy.
Photo Courtesy of WageSafe
WageSafe Pty Ltd, launched by a team of compliance specialists with more than two decades of experience, has introduced a platform that audits wages in real time. Instead of relying on annual or quarterly reviews, the system continuously checks each pay run against Australia’s complex industrial awards. The company says it has already analysed over one million employee wage records and processed billions of dollars in payroll, a scale that underscores the appetite for ongoing oversight.
Technology that Audits Every Pay Run
The WageSafe platform connects to existing payroll systems through APIs and automatically translates modern award conditions, covering overtime, penalty rates, and allowances, into precise computations. Its dashboard flags potential underpayments and overpayments before wages are finalised. Risk levels are colour-coded: red for urgent action, Amber for watch, and Green for compliant, allowing payroll teams to quickly target problem areas.
“The complexity of Australia’s award system makes manual checks slow and error-prone,” says Mark Jenkins, WageSafe’s chief executive. “Our technology runs these checks continuously so companies can correct issues before money leaves their accounts.”
Unlike traditional audits, which often surface problems months after wages are paid, WageSafe’s system produces shift-level data that can be drilled down to individual employees. Jenkins says this capability “helps businesses protect both their workforce and their balance sheet in a single step.”
Market Demand Driven by Regulation and Risk
The service has found a receptive market. Analysts estimate that Australia’s payroll and HR services sector is worth around A$1.7 billion in 2024, expanding at roughly 7 percent annually. Within that, demand for automated compliance tools is growing faster at 10 to 12 percent a year as employers respond to tightening state laws, including the introduction of wage-theft offences now legislated nationally.
The company has signed contracts with some of the country’s largest retail operators and leading financial institutions. These organisations are under pressure not only from regulators but from increasingly vigilant employees. Public disclosures of underpayments have spurred workers to check their payslips and lodge complaints.
“Businesses now recognise that waiting for an annual audit is too risky,” Jenkins explains. “Real-time monitoring gives them the ability to spot discrepancies before they become public scandals or expensive legal disputes.”
Balancing Innovation and Privacy
Continuous payroll monitoring inevitably raises questions about data security. WageSafe’s platform holds sensitive employee information and payroll figures across large enterprises. Jenkins acknowledges that protecting this data is central to the company’s operations. “We built the system with encryption and strict access controls,” he says, adding that independent security audits are conducted regularly.
Industry observers note that as more organisations adopt real-time compliance tools, privacy safeguards will remain under close scrutiny from both regulators and employees. The challenge for providers like WageSafe is to maintain rigorous standards while scaling to meet growing demand.
Shaping the Next Phase of Compliance
For Australian employers, the change means compliance can no longer be treated as an occasional check-up. It requires constant surveillance, supported by technology capable of matching the intricacies of the Fair Work system. WageSafe’s early success shows that the market is moving toward tools that reduce the lag between payroll errors and their discovery - a development that could reshape employer practices well into the next decade.
Contact Info:
Name: Daniel Schroder
Email: Send Email
Organization: WageSafe Pty Ltd
Website: https://www.wagesafe.com.au/
Release ID: 89173388
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