Minimum wage checker for New Zealand employers
Minimum wage must be met for every hour actually worked — not every hour you paid for. Enter the rate, the hours and any unpaid time, and this works out the rate you really paid.
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General information, not legal or payroll advice. Rates are those in force from 1 April 2026 and are reviewed each year. Check Employment New Zealand, or take advice, before relying on this for a pay decision. It does not constitute legal, HR, or professional advice and should not be relied on as a substitute for advice specific to your business, workforce, or circumstances.
Work out your effective hourly rate
Enter one employee and one pay period.
What you actually paid per hour
Estimates only — verify before making decisions.
Why unpaid time is the usual cause
A minimum wage breach in New Zealand rarely looks like paying someone $19 an hour and hoping. It looks like paying the correct rate for the rostered hours, while ten or fifteen minutes a shift of real work goes unrecorded.
Minimum wage must be met for every hour actually worked. Opening up before the doors open, cashing up after they close, a handover, compulsory training, travel between sites — that is working time, and if it is not paid it still counts in the divisor. Ten minutes a shift across ten shifts is 1.7 hours; on a rate sitting close to the floor, that is enough to take you under it.
Unpaid trials are not lawful
Work is work. An unpaid trial shift, or unpaid training before a start date, does not sit outside the Minimum Wage Act because it was called a trial.
A 90-day trial period is a different thing entirely — it is a paid employment relationship with a restriction on raising a personal grievance for unjustified dismissal, available only to employers with fewer than 20 employees and only when agreed in writing before the employee starts.
The rates from 1 April 2026
| Rate | Per hour | Who it applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Adult | $23.95 | Everyone 16 and over who does not meet the conditions below |
| Starting-out | $19.16 | 16–17 year olds in their first 6 continuous months with you; 18–19 year olds who have been on a specified benefit 6+ months; 16–19 year olds whose agreement requires 40+ industry training credits a year |
| Training | $19.16 | 20 and over whose employment agreement requires at least 60 credits a year of an industry training programme — typically apprentices |
Rates are reviewed annually and change on 1 April. Confirm the current figures against Employment New Zealand’s minimum wage rates before you rely on them. There is no separate youth rate: a 16-year-old who has been with you more than six months, or who supervises or trains other staff, is on the adult rate.
Related New Zealand tools
Catch it while you are still rostering
RosterElf checks the rate against the tier that applies to each employee as the roster is built, and records the hours actually worked rather than the hours rostered — which is the number the minimum wage is measured against.
New Zealand minimum wage questions
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From 1 April 2026 the adult minimum wage is $23.95 an hour. The starting-out and training rates are both $19.16. Rates are reviewed every year and change on 1 April.
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At the adult rate of $23.95 an hour, 40 hours is $958.00 gross a week before PAYE, KiwiSaver and any other deductions — about $49,816 a year on 52 weeks. At the starting-out and training rate of $19.16 it is $766.40 a week. Those are gross figures; what lands in the bank is lower.
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It already has. The rates on this page took effect on 1 April 2026 — $23.95 adult, $19.16 starting-out and training. Rates are reviewed every year and any change takes effect on 1 April, so the next move would be 1 April 2027.
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No. There is no youth rate in New Zealand. Anyone aged 16 or over is on the adult rate unless they specifically meet the starting-out or training conditions — and both of those are narrow.
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Three groups: 16 or 17 year olds who have not yet worked 6 continuous months for you; 18 or 19 year olds who have been on a specified social security benefit for 6 months or more and have not since completed 6 continuous months with one employer; and 16 to 19 year olds whose employment agreement requires at least 40 credits a year of industry training. A 16 or 17 year old who passes six months with you, or who supervises or trains others, moves to the adult rate.
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Employees 20 or over whose employment agreement requires them to do at least 60 credits a year of an industry training programme. In practice this is apprentices.