Not sure if this is the right place to post, it there is somewhere better please let me know. I was just looking for some advice on how much I should be paid working as I think I have been under paid for several months.

Currently am working in a cafe that operates under the restaurant award, I have 8 years experience in pretty much every position in hospitality (bartending 1.5yrs, barista 3yrs, serving 8yrs, dishy, short order cook, management, etc). The position I am mainly working now is barista but I also do the bartending (stubbies, wine, spirits and a few cocktails) acais, and cold drinks. As well as the normal jobs of serving at the till, dishes, etc.

I recently went through my payslips and found that I had never been taken off the intro wage. I spoke to my boss about it and he acted surprised and said he'd check it out, the following week my payslips had moved to level 1 but he never spoke to me about the change or what had happened. After looking at the award it appears that I am entitled to at least level 2 but after looking at the pay calculator on the fairwork website I'm a little bit confused by what it means about an appropriate level of training to move to level 3. Is that restricted solely to certifications or is my experience and competency to be undertaking those jobs without supervision enough 'training'.

I spoke to him today about being at least level 2 and he told me that he'll relook at it but defended that what he had now paid me as as accurate. He also said he would back pay me for only 3 months of underpayment when I feel at the very least I am legally entitled to everything after the first three months.

I have also spoken to other young coworkers about what they had been paid and some had been there 4 years and hadn't realised till I spoke to them that they were on intro wage the whole time. During my time there and theirs he had told us we got payrises which turned out to only be inflation of the intro wage. None of us had realised this as they didn't supply payslips to anyone, I had only requested mine to be sent a little while ago and was only checking the hours and hadnt thought to look up the pay and so only have a 2-3 months of payslips.

I will be contacting fairwork to get their advice but wasn't sure how long the response time is and was looking for advice in the meantime.