Employment rights in New Zealand

You must get a written employment agreement

Every employee in New Zealand is entitled to a written employment agreement, and you're entitled to take it away and get advice before you sign. An employer who pressures you to sign on the spot is telling you something. Read for: your duties, hours, pay, leave, notice period, any trial period, and any restraint of trade. If it was promised in the interview, it should be in the agreement. "We'll sort that later" is not a clause.

The 90-day trial: how it actually works in 2026

Since 23 December 2023, employers of any size can include a 90-day trial period, during which they can dismiss you without giving a reason and you generally can't raise a personal grievance for unjustified dismissal. Three things job seekers routinely get wrong:

• It must be agreed in writing before you start work. A trial clause signed after your first day is generally not valid. If they hand you the agreement on day one after you've started, the trial may be unenforceable.
• It can't be used if you've worked for that employer before, including through some casual arrangements.
• Everything else still applies during the trial: minimum wage, agreed pay, leave accrual, health and safety, and the duty of good faith. A trial only narrows dismissal claims; every other right still applies.

The money floor: what they can't go below

• Adult minimum wage: $23.95 an hour from 1 April 2026 (starting-out and training rate $19.16). Every hour worked, including trial shifts. An unpaid "trial shift" of real work is generally unlawful.
• KiwiSaver: the default employer contribution is 3.5% from April 2026. Watch for "total remuneration" clauses that fold the employer contribution inside your quoted salary rather than adding it on top. Legal in many cases, but it changes what your offer is really worth, so ask which way it's structured before you compare offers.
• Deductions need your written consent. Till shortages, breakages, training costs: an employer can't just dock your pay for them.
• Since 2025, deliberately withholding wages is a criminal offence. Wage theft is now theft. Keep your own record of hours worked, because your log is your evidence.

Leave: the guaranteed baseline

• Four weeks of paid annual leave a year, minimum, after twelve months (with pay-as-you-go rules for genuine casual work).
• Ten days of sick leave a year once you've worked six months, and you can use it to care for dependants.
• Twelve public holidays, including Matariki. Work one that falls on a day you'd normally work and it's time and a half plus a day in lieu.
• Bereavement, family violence and parental leave all exist as statutory minimums. Anything the ad brags about ("we offer 4 weeks of leave!") that merely restates the law is not a benefit.

The contractor trap

"You'll be on an independent contract, it's better for you" is sometimes true and often not. Contractors get no minimum wage, no paid leave, no KiwiSaver employer contribution, no personal grievance rights, and they pay their own tax and ACC. The label on the paper doesn't decide it: courts look at the real nature of the relationship. If they set your hours, supply the tools and you work only for them, that walks and talks like employment. If a role is offered as contracting, price it accordingly: a rough rule is that a fair contract rate runs well above the equivalent salary hour, because you're carrying the entitlements yourself.

What they can and can't ask you

The Human Rights Act protects you from discrimination in hiring on grounds including age, sex (which includes pregnancy), family status, relationship status, religion, disability, ethnicity and sexual orientation. Questions fishing at those areas ("planning kids?", "how old are you?") are generally off limits unless genuinely relevant to the job. You can decline politely and redirect: "nothing in my situation affects my ability to do this role." Note what was asked and when; if it later matters, your record matters more.

If something goes wrong early

Most employment claims, including unjustified dismissal (outside a valid trial) and unpaid wages, start as a personal grievance, which you must generally raise within 90 days of the event. The single most useful habit is the one you already have as a Jobtracker user: write things down when they happen. Dates, what was said, who was there. Contemporaneous notes are gold in any dispute.