Remember all the bluster about penalty rates crippling the hospitality industry? According to an investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman, recently revealed in the Australian Financial Review, 46 percent of hospitality businesses audited in 2012-13 failed to pay their workers the legal minimum. The report found that 2,752 workers had been underpaid a total of $1.2 million in wages over the year. One in six breaches related to weekend penalty rates.

Restaurant and Catering Australia chief executive John Hart says that the report’s release is timed to embarrass employers, who, at the time, were battling “widespread confusion” about the transition to modern awards. According to Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry head Kate Carnell, award wage rates are too complicated. Anyway, “The number of breaches established in this survey is small”, she said. More than $1 million in stolen wages is no big thing to an executive who doesn’t have to work weekends to pay the rent.

Last year, Joe “get a good job” Hockey asked us to “consider the economic impact of Sunday penalty rates”. According to a January Essential poll, eight out of 10 Australians have considered it and think that people who work anti-social hours should be paid higher rates. Despite a concerted effort, neither the government nor the bosses have been able to shift the mood about penalty rates. The embarrassing facts keep getting in the way.

The restaurant and cafe sector is booming. Writing in Crikey earlier this year, Bernard Keane pointed out that in 2013-14: “The broader accommodation and food services sector was second only to the health and social care sector for net growth in businesses, and nearly all of that growth was in cafes and restaurants, takeaway food shops and pubs”.  

The food and beverage services industry also ranks among the top sectors for job growth over the last five years, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data. An 18 percent increase in jobs in the sector over that period was less only than the health and road transport industries. For all the hysteria about penalty rates costing jobs and threatening businesses, hospitality bosses are making a killing in a growing sector.