Wage and time records in NZ: what employers must keep, and for how long

What the wages and time record must show

Section 130 of the Employment Relations Act 2000 sets the list. For each employee you must record their name, their age if they are under 20, their postal address, the kind of work they usually do, and whether they are on an individual or a collective agreement. For a collective agreement, add its title, its expiry date and the employee's classification under it.

Then the part that matters most: the number of hours worked each day in each pay period and the pay for those hours, and the wages paid each pay period with how they were calculated. Any employment relations education leave goes in too.

The record can be on paper or electronic, as long as it can be easily turned into writing. Where someone has agreed hours and pay and works exactly those hours, stating the usual hours in the record, the employment agreement or a roster is enough. When the hours vary, you need the actual hours, day by day.

Section 4B adds a wider duty: keep records in enough detail to show you have met minimum entitlements, such as the minimum wage and holiday pay. Employment New Zealand also calls it good practice to record the rest and meal breaks people took.

Hours for salaried staff

A salary does not take someone out of the record. Their usual hours include any additional hours their agreement allows, so a statement of usual hours can cover a normal week. But you must record any extra hours needed to show they are still paid at least the minimum wage for every hour worked.

In practice, that means recording actual hours whenever a salaried person's week runs long. If a manager works 55-hour weeks through a busy month, the record should say so, because divided across those hours the salary may fall below the minimum wage. Without the hours, you cannot show it did not.

Holiday and leave records

Section 81 of the Holidays Act 2003 requires a separate holiday and leave record, which can sit inside the wages and time record. It shows the start date, current annual holiday and sick leave entitlements, the dates and pay of annual holidays, sick, bereavement and family violence leave taken, public holidays worked and paid, alternative holidays, any holidays cashed up, and holiday pay paid on leaving.

The Employment Leave Act 2026 replaces the Holidays Act on 6 August 2028. Until then, Employment New Zealand says you must follow the Holidays Act and cannot switch early. From that date, the leave record moves to the new Act, and the wages and time record changes too: pay itemised by category, such as ordinary time, overtime and allowances, and a new duty to give a pay statement for each pay period someone works or is on paid leave. Today, Employment New Zealand says payslips are not required by law unless the employment agreement provides for them.

How long to keep them, and the penalties

The Holidays Act says each entry is kept for not less than six years after it is made. The Employment Relations Act gets there through access: an employee can ask for any part of their wages and time record from the preceding six years. Employment New Zealand's advice is to keep both records for six years, including for people who have left. From 6 August 2028 the six years is written into section 130 itself, and records must be kept longer while they are relevant to a case, or when a Labour Inspector requires it.

Failing to keep either record is an infringement offence. A Labour Inspector can issue a $1,000 infringement notice for each one, so a business with poor records for every employee can face several, up to $20,000 in any three months. Alternatively, the Employment Relations Authority can order a penalty of up to $10,000 for an individual employer, or $20,000 for a company, though not both for the same conduct. A Labour Inspector can also require copies, due immediately or, if that is not practicable, within 10 working days.

The biggest cost is often in a pay dispute. If you failed to keep or produce the record and that hurt the employee's ability to claim accurately, the Authority may accept their account of the hours they worked and the wages they were paid, unless you can prove it wrong. Arrears claims can reach back six years.

Giving staff access

An employee, or someone they authorise to represent them, can ask for access to their wages and time record, a copy or an extract. Today you must provide it immediately. For the holiday and leave record, the employee, their representative, their union or a Labour Inspector can ask, and you must comply as soon as practicable.

Make that easy. A request is often the first sign that someone thinks their pay is wrong, and a quick, complete answer settles more disputes than it starts. Our guide to keeping your own timesheet shows what employees are advised to record and ask for, so you know what your records will be compared with.

Records your staff can trust

A record is only as good as the hours that go into it. Timesheets help, and if an agreement or policy requires them, that cannot change without agreement. If someone forgets a timesheet or gets it wrong, Employment New Zealand is clear that they must still be paid, so talk it through and agree the hours. Trimming minutes is a trap: our article on whether an employer can round hours explains why rounding that only goes against staff is unpaid work.

The records people trust most are the ones they kept themselves and saw you use. Some employers ask staff to log their own start, finish and breaks, then check them against payroll each pay period. Team timesheets from jobtracker.co.nz puts the hours your people choose to share on one page, by person, project and task, with the dated history of every change and a CSV for payroll, at $6.99 a seat a month, GST included, for at least three seats. Because sharing is each person's choice, it sits beside your wages and time record rather than replacing it.

Hours you can check, from people who agreed to share them