Salary versus total package: what a company car, phone and health insurance are really worth

The perks that carry real value and the ones that do not

A perk is worth what you would otherwise pay for it. Health insurance you would buy anyway is worth its full premium to you. A gym membership you would never use is worth nothing. A company car is valuable if you need a car, and much less if you would otherwise take the bus.

Real value usually sits in health and life insurance, employer KiwiSaver above the minimum, extra leave, a vehicle or parking in a city centre, a phone and laptop you can also use personally, and training that builds your career. Free snacks, social events and branded goods are pleasant, but they rarely change which offer is better. For each perk that matters, ask whether it covers your family, whether it has a waiting period or a stand-down before it starts, and whether it continues if your role changes.

Company car versus allowance and FBT

With a company car available for private use, your employer pays fringe benefit tax on it, and you are not taxed on the benefit. Inland Revenue counts travel between home and work as private use. Some work vehicles, such as a ute or van with permanent signwriting whose private use the employer has restricted in writing, can be exempt if they meet its conditions.

A car allowance is different: it is cash, taxed through PAYE like your salary, unless it only reimburses actual work costs. A $5,000 allowance in the 33% band keeps about $3,088 after PAYE, ACC and KiwiSaver at 3.5%. So compare a company car with an allowance by what running your own car would cost you, against what the allowance leaves after tax. Ask too who pays for fuel, servicing and insurance, and whether the car can be used at weekends or by others in your household, because the answers change what it saves you.

Insurance, subsidies and their after-tax value

Health insurance the employer holds for you, usually through a group scheme, is subject to FBT, which the employer pays, so it reaches you untaxed. If the policy is in your own name and the employer pays the premium, it counts as your income and is taxed through PAYE. To buy the same cover yourself, you would need to earn more than the premium, because your salary is taxed first.

At 2026/27 rates, each extra dollar of salary puts about 61.75 cents in your hand in the 33% band, after PAYE, ACC at 1.75% and KiwiSaver at 3.5% (the KiwiSaver part still goes to your own savings), or 64.75 cents in the 30% band. So a $1,500 health insurance premium paid by your employer is worth about $2,429 of salary in the 33% band, or $2,317 in the 30% band. A work phone or laptop provided mainly for business, costing $5,000 or less including GST, is exempt from FBT altogether.

KiwiSaver inside a package

By default, an employer's KiwiSaver contribution is paid on top of your salary. Some employers offer a total remuneration package, where their contribution comes out of the quoted figure. That is allowed only if you agree to it, so check which kind of offer you have, because it can change the value of the offer by 3.5% of salary. The employer's contribution also has employer superannuation contribution tax (ESCT) deducted before it reaches your account. Our guide to job offers and employment agreements explains how to spot a total remuneration clause.

Adding it all up next to the other offer

To compare two offers, list every part of each package, give each a value to you, and add the total to the take-home pay. The Offer Comparer takes the base salary, employer KiwiSaver, a bonus, employer-paid health insurance and a company vehicle or parking for two offers and works out both after tax, with no account needed. It counts the vehicle box as untaxed, so put a cash car allowance in the bonus box, where it is taxed like pay. Add the commute and any extra leave yourself, and keep one-off items such as a sign-on payment or relocation separate from the yearly figure.

In jobtracker.co.nz, each job's package can hold every item, from medical insurance and a company car to extra leave, a phone and share schemes, and values each one three ways: what it costs the employer, what it is worth to you, and the salary it equals.

Put a number on every part of the offer