Work Experience

Payment and taxation

The minimum rate of payment for students undertaking work experience in Victoria is $5 per day, except:

• if the work experience placement is with a Commonwealth department or a body established under a Commonwealth Act, no payment will be made. If the student or the parent/carer is not prepared to accept this condition, then it is their choice whether or not to proceed with a Commonwealth placement. On the Work Experience Arrangement Form, the line ’Rate of payment’ must be completed with the words ‘Commonwealth establishment – exempt from paying’
• if the work experience placement is with an organisation that is engaged wholly or mainly in an educational, charitable or community wellbeing service not conducted for profit, the student may determine that the whole of their payment will be donated back to that organisation. If the student determines that their payment will be donated back to the organisation, the parent/carer (where the student is under 18 years of age) must provide written consent to the proposed donation.

Payment does not include payment in kind. Gift cards and vouchers which would restrict a student to purchasing goods or services from a single pre-determined outlet or business must not be used to pay students.

Students aged 18 years and over will be required to provide a Tax File Number (TFN) declaration to the employer. The employer will be required to withhold amounts in accordance with the tax tables (where applicable), issue payment summaries and report these payments to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), as they would do for their employees.

Where the student is under 18 years of age and has not provided a Tax File Number declaration, the employer will not be obliged to make any withholding if the payment made to the student is $350 or less per week. However, employers will still be required to:

• issue payment summaries
• report payment details to the ATO.