Weekend and Sunday pay in New Zealand: is there a penalty rate?

No legal weekend or Sunday rate: it comes from your agreement

No Act sets a higher rate for Saturday or Sunday work. Employment New Zealand describes penal rates, the special rates for working particular days or shifts, as something negotiated between you and your employer, either in your employment agreement or as a one-off. Some agreements, often collective ones, pay a weekend allowance or a higher Sunday rate. Many pay nothing extra, and that is lawful. Our article on whether shift work is worth it works through what a premium is worth after tax.

The law does protect which days you work. Under section 67C of the Employment Relations Act 2000, your agreed hours belong in your employment agreement, and they include the days of the week you work. Employment New Zealand says that when the agreement sets your hours, your employer cannot change them without your agreement. So if yours says Monday to Friday, being rostered on Saturdays is a change you can discuss, not an order. Weekend work beyond your agreed hours is covered in our article on overtime and the law.

Easter Sunday: not a public holiday, and the right to refuse shop work

Section 44 of the Holidays Act 2003 lists the public holidays. Good Friday and Easter Monday are on it; Easter Sunday is not. Employment New Zealand's guidance is that if you work on Easter Sunday you are generally paid your ordinary Sunday rate, unless you agree a different one, and you get no alternative holiday.

What Easter Sunday does have is a right of refusal for anyone who works in or from a shop. It is in sections 5F to 5L of the Shop Trading Hours Act 1990, added on 30 August 2016, and it still stands:

• You may refuse, and you do not have to give a reason. A clause in your agreement that requires you to work, or to be available, on Easter Sunday cannot be enforced against you.
• Your employer must tell you in writing first. An employer who wants you to work must give you notice of your right to refuse no earlier than 8 weeks and no later than 4 weeks before Easter Sunday, in person, by email or as your agreement sets out. Easter Sunday 2027 is 28 March, so by our count that notice falls between 31 January and 28 February 2027.
• You reply in writing within 14 days of getting that notice if you intend to refuse.
• Your employer cannot compel you or treat you badly for refusing. Making Easter Sunday a condition of keeping your job, pressuring you, or rostering you without the notice all count as compelling you. Either gives you a personal grievance, which you raise within 90 days.

Employment New Zealand says the right covers every shop employee: dairies, petrol stations and garden centres included, and staff doing non-trading work such as stocktaking. It also says the notice must be given every year, and that if you miss the 14 days and your agreement says you may be required to work on Easter Sunday, you are obliged to work if asked. And if your shop is closed that day and Sunday is one of your normal days, what you are paid depends on your agreement; an employer who does not give you work may have to pay what you would have earned.

Weekends, public holidays and the minimum wage

Every hour you work on a weekend must be paid at least the minimum wage, and Employment New Zealand says that applies to all the time you work. From 1 April 2026 that is $23.95 an hour for adults, or $19.16 on the starting-out or training rate. A weekly sum that covers weekend hours too, divided by every hour worked, must still reach it.

A public holiday on a weekend is where the law adds money. Working any part of a public holiday earns at least time and a half under section 50 of the Holidays Act, plus an alternative holiday if it would otherwise have been a working day for you. Section 50 works time and a half out on your pay without penal rates, meaning an identifiable extra amount for working a particular day. Say you earn $25 an hour and $30 on Sundays. On a public holiday that falls on a Sunday you work, time and a half on $25 is $37.50 an hour, which is more than your $30 Sunday rate, so $37.50 is what you are owed.

This summer brings several weekend holidays: Boxing Day falls on Saturday 26 December 2026, 2 January on Saturday 2 January 2027, Waitangi Day on Saturday 6 February 2027 and ANZAC Day on Sunday 25 April 2027. Under sections 45 and 45A, if you would normally work that Saturday or Sunday, the holiday stays on that day for you. If you would not, it moves to the following Monday: 28 December, 4 January, 8 February and 26 April.

Asking for a weekend rate in a job offer

Because a weekend rate exists only if you agree one, the offer stage is when to ask. Three questions cover it:

• Which days are in my agreed hours? Ask for them in the agreement itself, as section 67C expects, so weekend work beyond them is your choice.
• Is there a weekend or Sunday rate, and is it a separate amount? A loading written as its own named figure, such as "$3 an hour on Saturdays and Sundays", is easy to check on a payslip, and it is the kind of penal rate section 50 sets aside.
• How are public holidays on weekends handled? The law sets the minimum; some agreements pay more.

If the answer is no extra rate, that is the employer's lawful choice, and you can weigh the role on its full pay instead. Some people ask for a higher base rate, or for weekdays only.

Keep the record of which days you worked

Weekend pay is only checkable if you know which days you worked. Write down the date, start, finish and any unpaid break for every shift, and mark any public holiday, especially one that moved to a Monday for others but stayed on your Saturday. Keep the written Easter Sunday notice and your reply with their dates.

Your Timesheets at jobtracker.co.nz does that free on every plan: a week grid with a column for each day, start and finish times, a break and a note on any entry, and every change kept in the entry's history. When you give your hours to your employer, mark the week sent, and later changes say so. If your pay and your record do not match and talking does not fix it, Employment New Zealand on 0800 20 90 20 can help, and arrears of wages can be claimed back six years.

Know which days you worked