Asking for a pay rise in New Zealand

Is there a right to a pay review?

Not in law. Employment New Zealand says there is no legal obligation to review an employee's pay, and no obligation to give a pay rise or hold a performance review unless your employment agreement or a workplace policy provides for one. Above the minimum wage, your pay is whatever you and your employer agree. (Employment New Zealand: setting pay, pay reviews and pay rises)

Two things are on your side. You can always ask: if you are unhappy with your pay, your employer must consider your request and respond to it in good faith. And your own agreement or workplace may well have a review cycle, even though the law does not require one. Read your agreement for a review clause, check the workplace policies, and ask when pay decisions are made this year.

When to ask

About six weeks before the review is decided, not at the review meeting. Pay decisions are often made before the review conversation itself: a budget is set, and your manager may have to argue for your number with someone who holds it. Raise it in the meeting and you may be asking for money that has already been allocated. Six weeks gives your manager time to take your case upstairs.

If your workplace has no review cycle, these are good moments:

• A year after your pay was last set. Twelve months of work, and of rising prices, is a clean line to draw.
• After a clear win, while everyone still remembers it.
• When the job has grown. If you are doing more than your position description says, or covering a role that was never refilled, the job you are paid for is not the job you do.

Avoid the week of bad financial news, a corridor conversation, and a first ask by email. Ask for a meeting about your pay, so nobody is caught off guard:

Build the case from your wins

A rise is easier to give when your manager can explain it to someone else. So the case is not "I work hard". It is three or four specific things you have done since your pay was last set, each with a number:

• Delivered: "Brought the new supplier onboarding live two weeks early."
• Improved: "Cut the month-end close from eight working days to five."
• Grew the role: "Trained both new starters, and took over the Wellington accounts in March."
• Feedback: "The client asked for me by name at the renewal."

The hard part is remembering in September what you did in February. The fix is a wins journal: one line on the day it happens, with the number it moved, whether that is hours saved, dollars, customers or days taken off a process. A year of those lines is most of your case, and the same lines feed your self-review and your next CV. Prepare for your performance review covers keeping one.

What prices have done to your pay

If your pay has not changed since it was set, what it buys has been shrinking. The measure is Stats NZ's consumers price index (CPI), which tracks the change in prices of the goods and services households buy. Stats NZ publishes it every quarter, so the figures change four times a year: take the latest from Stats NZ's CPI page rather than a number you remember from the news.

To work it out yourself you need two index numbers: the CPI for the quarter your pay was last set, and the latest one. Divide the latest by the earlier one, and multiply your pay by the result. That is the pay that would buy what yours bought then.

Use prices as the floor of your case, not the whole of it. Keeping level is not a rise. Lead with your wins, which are about the value you add, and let prices set the lowest number you will accept.

What the market pays

The third piece of evidence is what other employers pay for the same work now.

• Job ads for your role that show pay, on Seek, LinkedIn, ZEIL and employers' own careers pages. Match the title, the level and the region as closely as you can, and collect several: one ad is an anecdote.
• Careers NZ has information about the pay range for many jobs in its jobs database.
• Recruiters in your field will usually tell you what roles like yours are paying.
• Colleagues. You can talk about pay at work. Being treated badly for discussing your pay with others, or for asking about someone else's, is one of the grounds for a personal grievance (Employment New Zealand: personal grievances).

Use the market as evidence, not a threat. "I could earn more elsewhere" changes the conversation; "roles like mine are advertised between $X and $Y" does not. More on finding a range in Salary negotiation in New Zealand.

The range to ask for

Go in with two numbers: the one you ask for, and the lowest you will accept. Keep the second to yourself.

• The lowest: at least the pay that keeps level with prices since your pay was last set. If prices have barely moved, a modest step up rather than nothing.
• The ask: a little above that, with room to meet in the middle, and higher if the market evidence says roles like yours pay well above what you earn.

Your Career works the range out from your own records this way: the lowest is whichever is higher, the pay that keeps level with prices or 3% more than you earn now, and the ask is about 4% above that, rounded to the nearest $500. It is arithmetic from your own figures, not a promise of what your employer can pay, and the draft it gives you is yours to edit.

Ask for one number, not a range. "Somewhere between $76,000 and $80,000" usually gets you $76,000.

Before the meeting, check what a rise comes to in your hand. After PAYE, ACC, KiwiSaver and any student loan, a rise of $4,000 a year is less than $4,000 in your account, and knowing the real figure helps you weigh anything offered instead.

What to say

Bring a one-page summary: your wins with their numbers, when your pay was last set, what prices have done since, and the market evidence. Then keep it short:

Then stop talking, and let them answer first. A silence feels long from your side of the table and ordinary from theirs.

• Talk about your work, not your bills. Your costs are real, but the case your manager can take upstairs is about value.
• Argue from your own record, not from a named colleague's pay. It puts your manager on the defensive and moves the conversation off you.
• Do not say you will leave unless you mean it. If you have a real offer, you can say so once, plainly.
• Ask when you will hear. "When can I expect an answer?" gives the conversation an end date.

If they say not now

"Not now" is not "no", but it turns into one if nothing is written down. Your employer must consider your request and respond in good faith, so it is fair to ask for a proper answer. Before you leave the room:

1. Ask what, specifically, would earn the rise: which results, by when.
2. Ask for a date to come back to it, in writing. Three months out is reasonable. Put it in your calendar.
3. Send a short email the same day recording what was agreed: the criteria, the date, and any step in between.

Then ask about the things around the pay, which can be easier to say yes to: extra leave, flexible hours, training or a qualification they pay for, a title that reflects the work you do, or a higher employer KiwiSaver contribution. None of these replaces a rise, but each has a value, and a title carries into your next job.

If the answer is no, with no criteria and no date, that is useful information too: it tells you where your next rise is likely to come from. How to get a job in New Zealand is the place to start.