More than half of job ads published in languages other than English are offering below the legal pay rate, a new survey has found,

The survey, by Unions NSW, analysed 7,000 job advertisements in foreign languages across about a dozen industries previously linked to wage theft.

It found that 60 per cent are offering below the legal rate of pay.

The report, launched recently by federal Immigration Minister Andrew Giles said the ads offering illegally low waged were most commonly in Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Spanish and Portuguese.

Retail was the worst industry for low pay, ranked in the report with more than 84 per cent of foreign language ads offering below award pay, followed by cleaning, transport, building and construction, hospitality and hair and beauty.

In horticulture, where laws were introduced in April enforcing a minimum wage, the survey found the number of job ads advertising an hourly rate has improved, from just 12 per cent to 60 per cent.

Underpayment of migrant workers had become a “business model”, Unions NSW said, adding that in Australia and the Fair Work Ombudsman was not well resourced enough to protect vulnerable workers.

The survey cited examples of job ads in hospitality offering $15 and $17 an hour, when the award for a level one food and beverage attendant is $21.97.

It also published examples of ads posted on social media for seasonal farm workers guaranteeing the minimum wage for a short time, or only when workers “become familiar” with the work.

Unions NSW Secretary Mark Morey said many migrant workers were too scared to complain for fear of being deported because they have worked more hours than their visa allows.

“What we want to see is, when people make a complaint, there’s a firewall where their complaints and their stories can’t be directly passed on to the Home Affairs Department,” he said.

The federal government’s new Industrial Relations Bill, passed last week, does not erect a “firewall’, but it does ban job advertisements offering below the minimum award.

In a statement, Mr Giles said his government would try to encourage migrant workers to make official complaints.

“Currently, our visa system shifts too much risk away from employers and onto individuals. We need to fix this by focusing on exploitative employers, not seeking to cancel people’s visas,” he said.

A separate recent report also four the exploitation of migrant and refugee workers is widespread and systemic.

The Western Community Legal Centre’s (WCLC) investigation into labour rorting has found that the underpayment of workers new to Australia could amount to millions of dollars.

The centre carried out 39 focus groups and received 105 surveys finding that 52 per cent of survey respondents said that underpayments were common or that they or someone they knew was not paid enough.

The surveys, conducted across western Melbourne, found 38 per cent of respondents indicated that not being paid regularly was common for newly arrived or refugee communities, or that they or someone they knew experienced this.

More than a third, or 36 per cent, reported it was common to come in early or stay late at work without getting paid, and exactly a third reported it was common to miss out on superannuation entitlements.

And almost half (47 per cent) of respondents reported that discrimination at work was common.

The WCLC’s Employment Legal Service (ELS) reported recovering or obtaining orders for over $120,000 in unpaid entitlements and over $125,000 in compensation for unlawful termination.

The report’s author Catherine Hemingway said although employment is widely regarded as the most crucial step for successful settlement in a new country, recently arrived migrant and refugee workers face many barriers.

“Finding employment is difficult. For those who do find work, exploitation is widespread,” Ms Hemingway said.

“Exploited workers are often not aware of their rights, and rarely access help to enforce the law.

“The extent of the problem is shocking. We come across many stories of workers being underpaid or not paid at all. In one case a man was being paid just $8 an hour and in another two workers were being paid one wage between them,” she said.