A qualified nurse in Thailand, Anchalee Suwan came to Australia a decade ago to acquire experience working in an English-speaking country.
She found herself undertaking studies in Melbourne as an international student whilst working multiple jobs to make ends meet - many of them underpaid.
Over 10 years, she estimates she was underpaid $100,000 in lost wages and superannuation entitlements.
"I was younger - 26 years old - and in that time in your life when you have that much vitality," she told SBS News.
Ms Suwan ended up working six days, initially as a kitchen hand then moving into aged care and community care work once qualified. She supplemented her income working as a singer and a massage therapist.
"I didn't know I had that much skill to survive. Whatever opportunity came my way, I just grabbed it. When I got the aged care work, I would work from 6am to 9am to help people put shoes on, bathe them. Then I go to school.
"In the evening, I get to work as a kitchen hand [$50 per shift], sometimes I have singing work from 10pm until 4am on Friday and Saturday night. I get paid $80 per shift. And then 7am on Monday, I have to go do it all over again."
Instant noodles became a staple meal.
"As a nurse I know that it is really bad to live off instant noodles," she said.
"But somehow we [my flatmate from Thailand and I] try and be creative about how to eat - add meat, add vegetables - to get nutrition. We became addicted... but it is the cheapest way. It is cheaper than takeaway coffee - $1 per package. And that will save you money."
She left Australia for Japan just before the pandemic and is building her life there with her partner and child.
She never recovered the lost wages and said speaking up about it during her time in Australia was difficult.
"I was just so stressed. Being alone in a new country, trying to pay rent and go to school. I was in survival mode all the time.
"I didn't know who to talk to. It seems like all the international students were facing the same issue. And we don't know how to deal with that. If we complain we lose the job, the employer will find another student to replace you straight away. It is not easy to find a job, you try to keep it."
A new law has come into effect from 1 July in Victoria, making it a crime for an employer to deliberately underpay employees.
Last year in June, the state became the first jurisdiction in Australia to pass the so-called wage theft laws in parliament.
These crimes are punishable with 10 years’ jail for individuals. There are also steep fines of nearly $200,000 ($198,264) for individuals, or close to $1 million ($991,320) for companies who breach the law.
The legislation also establishes a new independent statutory body, the Wage Inspectorate of Victoria, to bring criminal proceedings under the Victorian Wage Theft Act 2020.
Queensland amended the definition of stealing under its Criminal Code to make wage theft a criminal offence last year in September. Breaches can result in 10 years' imprisonment.
Other Australian jurisdictions have used amendments to administrative law or industrial relations law to increase penalties for employers for wage theft, but the Victorian stand-alone bill goes the furthest in imposing criminal sanctions and an enforcement regime.
'An insidious crime'
Victoria's Minister for Industrial Relations, Tim Pallas, said the laws target deliberate underpayment, and are not aimed at employers who make honest mistakes, or who exercise due diligence in paying wages and employee entitlements.
“Wage theft is an insidious crime that often takes advantage of vulnerable employees who may be too afraid to speak up – these laws send a strong message that Victoria takes the exploitation of workers seriously and that wage theft is intolerable and will be punished."
"While deliberate underpayment is one element of wage theft, falsifying or failing to keep records to conceal underpayments is just as serious and also targeted by Victoria’s laws."
Victorian Trades Hall Council Secretary Luke Hilakari said he welcomes the change.
"Look, I think this might be another Australian first. Australia has a great history - specifically Victoria, in leading the way in working reforms. We are the first place in the world to come up with the eight-hour day."
"This is just another step in which we're leading the world we're saying: 'actually, when someone goes to work, they deserve to be paid for every hour that they're for'."
Director of the Wage Inspectorate Victoria, Robert Hortle, said the body would be actively prosecuting employers over wage theft under the new legal framework.
"This is a landmark day for Victoria," he said in a statement on Thursday. "(The) Wage Inspectorate Victoria was established with the purpose to protect vulnerable employees from exploitation and hold employers to account if they commit wage theft."
Ms Suwan said she is trying to put the past behind her, but said she hopes others do not have to experience what she did, particularly now the underpayment of wages is criminalised in Victoria.
"I feel like a fool. That was 10 years of my life in Australia. These employers - how can you do this to people?
"Some restaurant owners are originally from the same country as me. We should support each other. You didn't expect that - for them to actually lie to you, smile and use you like that.
She urged others to speak up and know their rights in the workplace.
"There are many people I imagine who are experiencing being underpaid or not paid at all right now. I encourage them to speak up."
Plans to create a federal criminal offence for wage theft with steep civil penalties eventually did not proceed under changes to the federal industrial relations omnibus bill revealed in December.
The bill had at one stage proposed up to four years in jails for the most serious cases of wage theft - and fines of up to $1.1 million for individuals and $5.5 million for companies.
Last week in New South Wales, a involving a Filipina woman who was detained over a three-year period working almost six days a week unpaid as a nanny, maid and shop assistant.
The couple were both handed jail terms and will be forced to repay the woman $70,000.
From 1 July, most industry awards dictating the minimum wage will be subject to a 2.5 per cent wage increase, lifting the minimum adult hourly wage to above $20 for the first time ($20.33 per hour).
A 2019 report by PwC - entitled 'Australia Matters' - estimated that 13 percent of the Australia's workforce are underpaid and that the economic cost to the nation is $1.35 billion per year.
Industry Super Australia said the amount of unpaid superannuation owed to almost .
