How to read your payslip in New Zealand

Do you have to get a payslip?

Not by law. Employment New Zealand says an employer does not have to give a payslip unless the employment agreement says it will. What the law does require is a wages and time record, which every employer must keep: the hours you worked each day in a pay period and the pay for those hours, and the wages paid each pay period and how they were worked out (Employment Relations Act 2000, section 130). When you ask, your employer must immediately give you access to it, or a copy, for up to the last six years. You can also ask for your holiday and leave record.

Employment New Zealand lists what a payslip may contain: your details and pay period, your hours and rate, gross pay, each deduction, net pay, leave balances, and year-to-date totals, which usually run from 1 April, the start of the tax year.

Hours and rates

The first part shows what you earned. For hourly work that is each kind of hours at its rate: ordinary hours, then any overtime or public holiday hours at their own rates, then allowances, bonuses or commission. Your hourly rate must be at least the minimum wage for every hour worked.

Check the hours first, because a rate times the wrong hours is still wrong. Rounded clock-in times and unpaid minutes before a shift are covered in whether your employer can round your hours.

Gross to net: PAYE, ACC, KiwiSaver, student loan

Four deductions come off your gross pay, each worked out on the same gross figure:

• PAYE: income tax at the 2026/27 rates of 10.5% to $15,600 a year, 17.5% to $53,500, 30% to $78,100, 33% to $180,000 and 39% above, set by your tax code. Without a tax code declaration (IR330), your employer must deduct 45%.
• ACC earners' levy: $1.75 for every $100 from 1 April 2026, on earnings up to $156,641. Inland Revenue collects it with the tax, so it is inside the PAYE figure.
• KiwiSaver: 3.5% by default since 1 April 2026, or the rate you chose.
• Student loan: 12% of your pay above the threshold of $24,128 a year, which is $928 a fortnight, if your tax code ends in SL. From a second job, it is 12% of every dollar.

This is an example, not a real payslip: a casual worker on pay-as-you-go holiday pay, 64 hours in a fortnight at $27.00 an hour, on tax code M SL with KiwiSaver at 3.5%, worked from Inland Revenue's IR340 tables. A payroll system may round a few cents differently.

On tax code ME SL, for someone eligible for the independent earner tax credit, PAYE would be $20 a fortnight less. Each step in more detail, with a salary example, is in how to work out your take-home pay.

Holiday pay, including 8% pay as you go

If you took annual leave, sick leave or a public holiday in the pay period, the payslip may show its pay as a separate line. Usually you become entitled to four weeks of paid annual holidays after 12 months of continuous employment, and they are paid when you take them.

Holiday pay added to every pay at 8% is allowed only in limited cases (Holidays Act 2003, section 28): you are on a genuine fixed-term agreement of less than 12 months, or your work is so intermittent or irregular that giving you four weeks' holidays is impracticable. You must also have agreed to it in your employment agreement, and it must be paid as an identifiable amount of at least 8% of your gross earnings. Employment New Zealand says a casual agreement on its own does not qualify, and that showing the 8% separately on a payslip is good practice. It also says that if it is paid when you did not qualify, you are still entitled to four weeks of paid holidays and keep what you were paid.

These rules stay until the Employment Leave Act replaces the Holidays Act in August 2028.

Other deductions and your consent

Under the Wages Protection Act 1983, your employer must pay your wages in full, apart from deductions the law allows (section 4). Beyond deductions the law requires, such as PAYE, student loan repayments and child support, a deduction needs a lawful purpose and your written consent or written request (section 5). A general deductions clause in your agreement can be that consent, but your employer must consult you before each specific deduction. No deduction may be unreasonable (section 5A).

Employment New Zealand gives examples. A deduction is likely to be unreasonable if you had no control over the situation, such as a customer driving off without paying for petrol. A one-off overpayment from a payroll mistake cannot be deducted from your pay without your written consent. You can withdraw or change your consent in writing, and your employer must act within 2 weeks where practicable.

Checking it against your own hours

A payslip is only as good as the hours behind it, so keep your own: start, finish and unpaid breaks, written on the day. At each pay day, add up the days the pay period covers and compare them with the hours paid, then check the rate and each deduction. In Your Timesheets, free on every plan, each entry takes a start, a finish and an unpaid break, the week grid totals each day and the week, and an entry you change keeps its earlier version.

If something does not match, raise it with payroll in writing, with the dates and your times, and ask for your wages and time record. Employment New Zealand is on 0800 20 90 20.

Keep your own record of your hours